Sony Memory Sticks, xD, and SmartMedia: 7 forgotten storage formats that definitely stole your files
Summary
The article explores the evolution of removable storage, highlighting the chaotic landscape of incompatible formats before SD cards emerged as the standard. This shift simplified user experience and enhanced compatibility across various devices and brands.
Key Insights
Why did SmartMedia and xD-Picture Cards become obsolete despite their initial popularity?
SmartMedia was limited to a maximum capacity of 128MB, which became insufficient as digital photo and video file sizes increased, while lacking broad compatibility across devices. xD-Picture Cards, used mainly by Olympus and Fujifilm, offered up to 2GB but were proprietary, smaller than SD cards, and lost to the more versatile, faster, and widely adopted SD standard.
How did the incompatibility of formats like Memory Stick, xD, and SmartMedia cause data loss for users?
These proprietary formats were not interchangeable across devices and brands—Memory Stick was mostly Sony-exclusive, SmartMedia topped at 128MB with thin contacts prone to damage, and xD was limited to Olympus/Fujifilm cameras—leading users to lose access to files when switching devices without adapters or facing format phase-outs before SD unified compatibility.