Nokia will shun Secure Digital (SD) cards no longer, the company said today. It's joining the SD manufacturers' association and has vowed to support the flash media format in future products.

The phone giant has preferred the MMC (MultiMediaCard) format and along with Hewlett Packard, founded the MMC initiative in 1998. Although the physical packaging of both flash media types is similar - they're the same size, the SD card being the thicker of the two - the main difference is that SD cards support CPRM locks and keys. (MMC has supported a "SecureMMC" format for some time.)

Although the MMC format is royalty-free, because devices supporting SD cards have shipped in greater volumes - particularly in cameras - they're now cheaper. Nokia today acknowledged that customer demand was behind the decision. The company recently introduced the 7610 phone, the first phone to support yet another format, the Reduced Size MMC.

Asian manufacturers are expected to debut an MMC-sized format that supports 2TB of data this autumn. ®

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