SanDisk today announced the first-ever 6 and 8 gigabyte microSD High Capacity (microSDHC) flash memory cards. The company has begun sampling the cards to major phone manufacturers and mobile network operators for testing and evaluation, and should be available at retail shelves later this year for an undisclosed price.

SanDisk is touting their new high capacity flash memory cards as ideal for new feature-rich multimedia handsets supporting Micro SDHC. An 8GB card has the ability to store more than 2,000 digital songs, or more than 5,000 high-resolution pictures, or up to 5 hours of high-quality MPEG 4 video.

"With these new cards, any mobile phone with a compatible microSDHC slot will have just as much storage as the largest-capacity iPhone," said Jeff Kost, vice president and general manager of the Mobile Consumer Solutions division at SanDisk.
The two new cards are rated Class 4 by the SD Association, an industry standards board, meaning they have a sustained write speed of 4MBps. In addition, the company announced the availability of a new 4GB Memory Stick Micro (M2) card that will retail for $99.99.