The SD Card Turns 25 Years Old
The SD Association (SDA) is getting out the candles and celebrating the SD card’s 25th birthday. Calling it “the world’s favorite memory card,” the SD is now old enough to rent a car in the United States.
The SD card is the longest-running form of storage media that is still in active use. While the CF and CFast cards have long since gone the way of the dodo, the SD card remains a mainstay in modern cameras and is still the most popular memory card format on Earth. Originally launched in the year 2000, the SD card was a joint initiative by SanDisk, Panasonic, and Kioxia meant to succeed the MultiMediaCard (MMC) and was designed to compete directly against Sony’s Memory Stick flash storage. That was clearly a success as the Memory Stick quickly fell out of use in the ensuing years and the SD card has undergone multiple upgrades over the years which has contributed to the longevity of the format.
In a 2003 story from Toshiba, it was explained that the trademark logo for the SD card comes from the failed competitor to the DVD, the Super Density Disc, and to differentiate it, the second “D” was removed and the single “D” was styled to resemble half a disc.
“Throughout the last 25 years, SD and microSD memory cards have sold more than 12 billion cards and evolved by offering massive storage capacities and lightning fast speeds, meeting industry needs. SD memory cards remain the most used removable storage card for consumer electronic devices,” the SDA says.
2025 is not only a landmark year for the original SD card but it is also a the 20th anniversary of the microSD card.
“This year, the SDA is celebrating another significant milestone, the 20th anniversary of the ground-breaking microSD. microSD memory cards remain a powerful and popular storage choice and played a pivotal role in transforming the mobile industry as the first storage expansion option for billions of mobile phones,” the SDA adds. “Selfies, mobile phone photography, enjoying music and videos on a mobile phone all became possible because of innovation driven by the SDA. Today, SD memory cards remain a valued part of the consumer and industrial products, allowing people to download and enjoy content from the world’s most popular video streaming services, store games and run apps directly from a card, and use those cards as an efficient memory expansion of their products.”
“SD memory cards continue delivering portability and convenience, letting people upgrade the storage in their devices at any time thanks to the dedication and vision of our nearly 800 SDA members,” Yosi Pinto, Chairman of the SDA, adds. “The cards continue to help product manufacturers innovate and provide better user experience because SD is a proven storage solution that continuously evolves with technology evolutions and market needs requiring higher speed data access and larger capacities.”
