SanDisk: "Show us your slot"

SanDisk's 8GB Ultra card and Mobile Mate USB adapter

Memory merchant SanDisk is so concerned that you don't know where your slot is, and what to stick in it, that it is seeking partnerships with media outlets to entice you to stuff a SanDisk memory card in your empty slot.

During a recent conversation with Dan Hogan, SanDisk's global marketing manager for mobile products, he hinted that while increasing the storage capacity for mobile memory cards is an inevitability, SanDisk is focusing efforts on partnering with media content partners with plans to include media, music or videos, on SanDisk memory cards in the future.

"Whether it's videos or movies or an artist's tracks, these are avenues we are very interested in pursuing," Hogan said.

Matching mobiles with movies, music or other content looks set to be big business. Nokia recently released a limited edition N82 with the feature film Batman Begins preloaded on the phone's memory. Nokia is also rumoured to be launching a video downloads service.

We should point out that the thinly veiled "slot" double entendre is SanDisk's, not ours. We are, of course, talking about the memory card slot on your mobile phone, but it's hard to keep a straight face when a video on SanDisk's website begins with the line "Jasmine's life changed the day she discovered her slot".

Our headline is also borne of an anecdote SanDisk reps told us about their campaign at the recent Good Vibrations Music Festival where the company's spokespeople were asking punters to show them their slots, and were rewarded with gifts when answered correctly.

The "Wake up your phone" website launched in January and features a cringe-worthy attempt at pitching to the Gen-Y with scripted "customer" opinions and a ringtone generator featuring "Techno" and "Hip Hop" beats. But the message is a valid one and with microSD memory being astoundingly cheap (an 8GB Ultra memory card is AU$68), you certainly don't need an iPhone to have 8GB of storage in your phone.