Matsushita develops world's 1st memory/smart card

Matsushita said it had developed world's first memory card with smart card capabilities and projected $318 mn in annual sales from it in five years.

Matsushita Electric Industrial said on Friday it had developed the world's first memory card with smart card capabilities and projected 35 billion yen ($318 million) in annual sales from the product in five years.

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Matsushita is looking to tap growing demand for smart card chips, which can be embedded into mobile phones or other devices as a store of personal information to be used in financial transactions or for identification.

"For service and content providers, we expect this card to expand the potential for applications and create new opportunities," president of Panasonic System Solutions Co Masaki Akiyama told a news conference.

Matsushita is already one of the world's largest makers of memory cards, used in digital cameras and other devices to store and transfer content. It promotes the SD Memory Card format, which has a larger market share than Sony's Memory Stick.

But Osaka-based Matsushita has lagged Sony in the smart card business. Sony's Felica smart chip is already used for East Japan Railway Co's prepaid ticket service and the Edy electronic money card.

Sony has shipped 60 million Felica smart chips worldwide.