SanDisk Gathers Press at Nasdaq to Announce New Compact Flash Extreme IV Card

SanDisk has announced its new ultra fast Compact Flash card line of products named Extreme IV.  The Extreme IV card features a read and write speed of 40MB/sec, doubling that of the predecessor Extreme III card.  The Extreme IV is squarely targeted at professional photographers that need to use fast cameras and then transfer their large raw image files quickly to a PC.

The announcement for the new Extreme IV card was rolled out with much excitment from SanDisk.  Not usually known for holding press conferences, the company hadn't held a press gathering since 2004, SanDisk decided to hold a conference at the Nasdaq stock exchange headquarters located in Times Square New York.  SanDisk is publically traded on the Nasdaq.

SanDisk took over the entire second floor of the Nasdaq on Times Square for its Extreme IV card press announcement (view large image)

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At the press conference Wes Brewer, vice president of product marketing, announced that 3 different capacity card versions of the Extreme IV would be available: 2GB, 4GB and 8GB.  Tanya Chuang, SanDisk's senior retail marketing manager, announced that pricing for the 2GB version of the card would start at $159.99 while the high-end 8GB card would retail for $639.99.  SanDisk is also creating a bundle package of an Extreme IV card with an Extreme FireWire reader allowing transfer speeds of 40MB/sec for a starting price of $239.99.  Happily, the product will be shipping within the next 2-weeks and no long delays between announcement and the actual ability to have this product in hand.

(view large image)

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SanDisk touted the new Extreme IV card and Extreme FireWire reader as a great way to improve workflow through reduced waits in transfer time and through confidence in having a card that works fast and reliably even in extreme temperature conditions.  Although only extremely high-end cameras, such as the Leaf 75, can currently utilize the write speeds of this card, SanDisk has been working with camera makers for the past year to test this product and assured attendees that a day will soon be here when cameras from companies such as Canon and Nikon will be able to take advantage.

Look for the Extreme IV card in retailers such as B&H Photo by the end of the month or before.