SanDisk begins sales of miniSD cards in Japan

Removable flash memory card developer SanDisk said Thursday that it has begun selling miniSD cards in Japan. The new format was announced in March, and SanDisk is one of the first companies to begin selling it. MiniSD is a smaller version of the Secure Digital card and is intended for use in cell phones and small portable digital audio players.

The first mobile phones with built-in slots for the miniSD cards are hitting the Japanese market with NTT DoCoMo leading the way with its 505i phone. SanDisk is selling the $24, 32MB card initially with higher capacities, up to 256MB, due out later this year.