You are talking about price variations in computer ram memory, this is totally different and not comparable to flash cards, the subject under discussion. I have never seen flash card prices vary by 50% in a month due to supply and demand.

Flash prices have not fallen as fast as they could have because of market contraction due to the collapse of the technology dot com bubble. This is being corrected this year hopefully.

The flash card market is driven by MP3 Cell Phones, Camcorders, Digital Cameras, and increasingly Bluetooth technology.

SD cards are the newest entrant in the field. The 256 and 512 cards have a data transfer rate of 10 MB/sec at the moment, perhaps 5 times faster than the smaller cards. The 1 GB card due second half of 2002 will double this speed to 20 MB/sec. 2 GB is projected for 2003 and 4 GB for 2004.

Compact flash memory cards can be found on internet auctions from time to time, and since they come directly from the manufacturer, they are strictly unused. A 256 meg card like I use in my digital camera cost less than $100, including s&h, and retail for more than $300 in area stores. These cards will hold 177 3.3megapixel shots, so a 1gig memory card in the new kn7k will hold more than I will ever put on it, and once the competition finds out Panasonic has a new market, the prices will eventually drop. This is a super way to store data and I wish it could have been available on the kn6k series. I know compact flash memory is a different technology, but let's hope the new cards will follow the same pricing structure.

[This message has been edited by Bud Whipple (edited 04-02-2002).]

Hi Bud, unfortunately SD cards are more expensive than compact flash at the moment, since they are the newest format to be launched.

My last 256 MB compact flash was $99. Lately they were down to $80 and that was retail, over the net, not from any auction.