SanDisk chief flashes forward to phones
Published: 03 Sep 2007 16:11 BST
SanDisk co-founder and chief executive Eli Harari continues to fight the good fight against Apple's iPod juggernaut, but even he's starting to look towards the future.
SanDisk's flash memory chips and cards can be found in mobile devices all over the world. But the company's attempts at making music and video players that would compete with the iPod haven't taken off. SanDisk is the second-leading maker of MP3 players, but Apple has 70 percent of the market and SanDisk has only around eight percent.
Harari admits that Apple is tough to beat in the music player category. But he's looking forward to watching mobile phones — such as Apple's iPhone — grow more and more sophisticated. More applications and data will require more storage, which people will want to move between devices. And that's exactly where SanDisk comes into play.
The company also stands to benefit from the introduction of flash memory in notebook PCs; assuming flash makers and PC companies can reach a consensus on the development of hybrid hard drives that promise to boost performance and reduce power consumption.
Harari took time out to share his views on trends in the flash market, Apple's music player prowess, and the future of software on mobile devices.
Q: Let's start with SanDisk and the music player business. What do you think about that market these days, given your position and Apple's position?
A: Let's start with the Sansa Clip [announced that day by SanDisk]. If you compare the Sansa Clip with the iPod Shuffle, for 1GB it's $39.95 (£19.78) versus $69.95 (actually $79 for the iPod Shuffle). It's got an FM radio, it's got a display, it's got a shuffle mode. Let's say you want an iPod Nano as your first MP3 player, if you want a second device you really ought to get the Sansa Clip; there's no question about it, it's a great product.
Well, if you started with an iPod why wouldn't you just continue with an iPod?
If you want to stay within the closed system and you don't want Rhapsody, you don't want Napster, you don't want Yahoo Music, you don't want Wal-Mart music store or you don't want Amazon music store, then stay with the Shuffle.
I believe that in the next two to three years everything will be wireless
Why is it that despite some of these features and despite more of the choices in music services that you can offer people, no-one has managed to make a dent in Apple's market share?
Because they're very good. You've got to give them credit where credit is due. But the value proposition with a Shuffle is just not there and people have been buying the Shuffle because, frankly, there has been no alternative for that.
When you look at the company and where you want to take it over the next one to three years, is SanDisk going to be known more as a supplier of this consumer electronics gadgetry or will you concentrate more on the manufacture of memory?
We are very, very good at the manufacture of flash memory. I believe we are as good as any company out there and we certainly plan to continue to be very focused on that together with our partner Toshiba, but we do want to move up the scale.
Our vision of the music environment, music and video, is that it's real, and it is in fact converging very quickly on the mobile phone. The mobile phone really ultimately is your multimedia platform. Apple has in fact conceded that by putting so much behind the iPhone... basically they're seeing the same trend as everybody else is seeing.
The iPod has sold 100 million [units] in the first six years of the product, which is phenomenal success but it's [a fraction of] the number of mobile phones that the mobile phone industry is shipping every month. We will be focused on providing storage and secure storage and removable storage that moves from one handset to another, that allows you take your music with you or your video clips with you from one environment to another.
Are you working on a phone design of your own?
Well, we never pre-announce products. But I believe that in the next two to three years everything will be wireless, every kind of device...
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