SanDisk expands India presence

NEW DELHI, INDIA: SanDisk Corp. announced plans to increase market presence and diversify product offerings in India. SanDisk’s expansion plans reflect the country’s growing demand for flash memory cards that are used in mobile phones, digital cameras, and digital music players, as well as new markets, such as digital camcorders and Solid State Drives (SSDs), which replace hard drives in notebook computers. The company is the market share leader for flash memory cards and is capitalizing on its advanced Design Center in Bangalore and local distributor relationships to increase product offerings and brand awareness.

“India is a key part of SanDisk’s global growth strategy,” said Sanjay Mehrotra, co-founder, President and CEO of SanDisk. “The country’s solid economic and infrastructure growth creates tremendous market opportunity for SanDisk and we are expanding our retail presence and broadening our product portfolio. In addition, we are leveraging the advanced NAND flash memory design work of our SanDisk India Device Design Center to develop innovative flash technologies for India’s increasingly digitally-savvy population.”

SanDisk offers a broad range of flash memory-based products, with the mobile phone market representing the largest application segment for cards. This market is expanding as more consumers gravitate toward phones that can play music, take high-resolution photos, access the Internet and play/record video. India is one of the fastest-growing mobile phone markets1 and is currently identified as the third largest mobile market in the world. As of January 2008, there were 242.4 million mobile phone users, a 55 percent growth index from the previous year.

Aarti Gahlaut, Assistant Manager, Peripherals Research, IDC India confirms this market trajectory, stating “Our latest data shows a significant expansion in the memory card market in Q4 2007 with a 24 percent increase over the previous quarter. Demand for memory cards has been on the rise in India with consumers using them primarily in mobile phones as well as in other portable devices, including digital cameras. SanDisk, as the flash storage card market share leader for mobile phones and digital cameras, is well-positioned to lead this market and provide flash memory solutions that accommodate the increasing demands of the Indian consumer base.”

To accomplish this expansion plan, SanDisk is partnering with Indian distributors Ingram Micro and Rashi Peripherals Pvt. Ltd., In addition, the company is leveraging its Bangalore-based SanDisk India Device Design Center, where the engineering teams do research and design to develop the NAND flash memory technology that is the key component of all SanDisk products. The regional office has been in operation since June 2006.

Manisha Sood, Country Manager, Sales and Marketing, for SanDisk’s Sales Office in New Delhi, said, “We are working closely with our distributors to deliver the SanDisk memory cards, music players, flash drives and other key products that are in high demand by local consumers. In addition, we are embarking on an integrated marketing campaign to build the brand through a platform that leverages print advertising and point of sales materials to build visibility among retailers and educate the retail channel and consumers. We have very high expectations for our efforts.”

SanDisk key retail product lines include:

* Mobile Cards – The SanDisk mobile family features the fingernail-sized microSD and microSDHC cards, and the Memory Stick Micro (M2). With capacities of 1, 2, 4 and 8-gigabytes (GB)3, the microSD, microSDHC and Memory Stick Micro (M2) cards are ideal for storing large quantities of music, photos and video. An 8GB card is able to store a combination of 1,000 songs, 1,200 photos and 21 hours of video.

* Digital Camera Cards – SanDisk offers a complete line of cards in industry-standard formats that match the wide range of digital cameras in use today. There are a variety of cards for digital cameras—ranging from Point & Shoot to high-end digital SLRs. These include the SanDisk Ultra II and SanDisk Extreme III lines that are geared for digital photography. SanDisk cards are also used in camcorders, handheld and laptop computers, mobile phones, video game consoles, audio/video players and GPS navigation devices.

* Flash drives – SanDisk is a market leader in USB flash drives with its Cruzer line. Flash drives are a fast and convenient way to store and transfer any kind of file—work documents, digital pictures, video and digital music. The Cruzer line of USB flash drives includes the stylish Cruzer Contour, the rugged Cruzer Titanium and the affordable Cruzer Micro.

* Sansa Players - SanDisk’s Sansa audio/video line offers consumers highly affordable, yet fun and fashionable music players loaded with appealing extra features. The Sansa product family includes the stylish and versatile Sansa Fuze, the tiny Sansa Clip with big sound and video-centric Sansa View. Other products include the kid-friendly Sansa Shaker and the popular Sansa e200.