Profile: SanDisk Corporation (SNDK.O)

SanDisk Corporation (SanDisk), incorporated in June 1988, is engaged in designing, developing and manufacturing products and solutions in a range of form factors using the flash memory, controller and firmware technologies. The card products are used in a range of consumer electronics devices, such as mobile phones, digital cameras, gaming devices and laptop computers. The Company also provide high-speed and high-capacity storage solutions, known as solid-state drives (SSDs) that can be used in lieu of hard disk drives in a range of computing devices, including personal computers and enterprise servers. The Company also produce universal serial bus (USB) drives, and moving picture experts group layer-3 audio (MP3) players, as well as embedded flash storage products that are used in a range of systems for the enterprise, industrial, military and other markets. In June 2008, the Company completed the acquisition of MusicGremlin.

The removable data storage solutions are available in almost every form factor in the primary markets. The professional products include the SanDisk Ultra and SanDisk Extreme product lines, which are designed with additional performance and reliability. The ultra-small microSD removable cards, available in capacities up to 16 gigabytes, are designed for use in mobile phones.

The Cruzer line of USB Flash Drives (UFDs), are used in the computing and consumer markets, are available in capacities up to 16 gigabytes. The Cruzer products provide the user with the ability to carry files and application software on a portable USB drive. Also, the Cruzer Crossfire UFDs are designed to make the console or PC gaming experience portable. The Professional and Enterprise line of UFDs are geared towards the corporate user and are designed to support secure and authorized access to corporate information.

The embedded products are set of embedded flash memory drive solutions for both data and code storage. The iNAND embedded flash product line, with capacities up to 16 gigabytes, are designed to respond to the increasing demand for embedded storage for mobile phones and other portable devices. The Company also offer SSDs targeted for the personal computing and network server markets in capacities up to 64 gigabytes.

Sansa is the branded line of flash-based digital media players for the digital audio and video player market. The Sansa models offer a removable card slot for easy transportability of music between devices and storage capacity expansion. Features within the Sansa line of products include frequency modulation (FM) radio, voice recording and support for a range of audio and video music download and subscription services. Sansa media players are available in capacities up to 32 gigabytes.

The Company competes with Hynix, IM Flash Technologies LLC, Micron, Samsung, STMicroelectronics N.V., Toshiba, A-Data Technology Co., Ltd., Buffalo Technology, Inc., Chips and More GmbH, Dane-Elec Memory, Elecom Co., Ltd., FUJIFILM Corporation, Hagiwara Sys-Com Co., Ltd., Hama Corporation, Inc., Imation Corporation and its division Memorex Products, Inc., I/O Data Device, Inc., Kingmax, Inc., Kingston Technology Company, Inc., Eastman Kodak Company, Lexar Media, Inc., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. which owns the Panasonic brands, Netac Technology Co., PNY Technologies, Inc., RITEK Corporation, Sony, Tradebrands International, Transcend Information, Inc., Verbatim Corporation, Apple Inc., ARCHOS Technology, Creative Technologies, Ltd. and Microsoft Corporation.