Industry Companies Establish MultiMedia Card Association

Fourteen industry companies have established the MultiMedia Card (MMC) Association. The MMC Association is set up to promote the adoption of the MMC as a new storage standard for telecommunications products.

In November 1997, SanDisk and Siemens introduced the MMC. This product provides portable data and audio storage to mobile phones, pagers, handheld computers, and audio receivers. Nokia's 9110 Communicator was the first product to implement the MMC. Since then, SanDisk says that the MMC has design wins in more than 10 other mobile platforms.

"The new MultiMedia Card Association is committed to make the MMC a broadly supported industry standard," says Eli Harari, president and CEO of SanDisk. "SanDisk and the other association members believe that the adoption of the MMC as the new storage card standard for intelligent communication devices and other small form factor consumer electronic products will greatly accelerate the market development of smart phones, advanced pagers, and consumer multimedia devices.

The 14 MMC members include Altec Computer Systems, Ericsson, Hitachi, ITT Cannon, LinkUP Systems, Motorola, Multisonic Interactive, Pontis GmbH, NEC, Nokia, QUALCOMM, SanDisk, SCM Microsystems, and Siemens AG. Andrew Prophet, founder of Andrew Prophet Research & Consulting, has been named executive director while Ericsson's Bengt Stavenow and Nokia's Tarmo Jukarainen have been appointed as co-chairmen.

The MMC Association features two types of members -- executive and affiliate. Executive members have full voting rights. Membership provides companies with access and use of the MMC specification. In addition, the MMC trademark will be royalty free to all association members.