Hamid Haidari and Yves Leonard to Spearhead Special Focus On Mobile Phone and Digital Imaging Markets

CUPERTINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 4, 2002--Marketing Committee Co-Chairpersons of the MultiMediaCard Association (MMCA) were appointed by the board of directors at the organization's recent meeting in Boston, it was announced today by Andy Prophet, Executive Director of the trade association. The MMCA is the open standard memory card organization, promoting worldwide adoption of a postage-stamp size, removable storage card designed especially for mobile phones and digital imaging.

The Co-Chairs are Hamid Haidari, Senior Applications Engineer, Technical Product Manager, at Lexar Media of Fremont, CA, and Yves Leonard, SRAM/Non Volatile Memory Senior Marketing Manager in Europe/Middle East/Africa for Samsung Semiconductors, whose office is in Frankfurt, Germany.

Mr. Haidari, who also chairs the Marketing Committees of both the PCMCIA and CompactFlash trade associations, has an extensive background in mechanical design and has been a member of the Hardware Design Engineering team at Lexar Media, in addition to having marketing responsibilities.

Mr. Leonard has 12 years' experience in the international memory business as a key accounts manager at Mitsubishi Semiconductors, and as manager of distribution and eBusiness at Korean-based Samsung before assuming his present position.

According to Mr. Leonard, "Our goal is to establish MultiMediaCards as the world standard in mobile phone and digital imaging markets. We'll do this by providing the best suite of card features, including high speed, high density, small size, low power and robust security. In addition, we have established a card compliance program for card makers, and have very competitive prices due to the lack of license/royalty fees as well as the high production volume and efficiency of the members. We will focus on a very close cooperation with the host manufacturers in order to quickly identify future market requirements and define aggressive common specs in a short timeframe."

"I look forward to working with Yves Leonard to bring the benefits of MultiMediaCards to future products in our two major markets: cell phones and digital cameras," said Mr. Haidari. "Yves has extensive experience in the cell phone industry, as I have a deep background in the digital camera market. In addition, we'll promote the MultiMediaCard standard in a range of other platforms, including PDAs, MP-3 music players, portable video games, GSM and laptop computers. We'll work to differentiate MultiMediaCards from other form-factors by offering enhancements and features that better serve both the manufacturers of host devices and ultimately the consumer."

About MultiMediaCards

MultiMediaCards are the world's smallest (24mm x 32 or 18mm x 1.4 mm) removable solid-state memory cards, designed especially for mobile phones and digital imaging, among other applications. These convenient, reliable, rugged and lightweight standardized data carriers store up to 256 Mbytes, or approximately 160,000 book pages. MultiMediaCards use ROM technology for read-only applications and Flash technology for read/write applications. The cards are fast for excellent system performance; energy efficient for prolonged battery life in portable products; and cost-efficient for use in systems sold at consumer price points. They also have an easy-to-install serial interface.

About The MMCA (MultiMediaCard Association)

The MMCA is the open standard memory card organization, promoting worldwide adoption of a postage-stamp size, removable storage card designed especially for mobile phones and digital imaging. Founded in 1998 with 14 companies, the MMCA has grown rapidly and now has over 100 members worldwide, representing all branches of mobile electronic applications, including semiconductor suppliers, software vendors and manufacturers of low power devices for storing and retrieving digital information.

The MMCA developed and regulates open industry standards that define all types of MultiMediaCards, ensuring full interoperability. The organization charges no royalties for using the membership-driven standard, except a license fee which is included in the membership dues. Specification are easily available from the organization's website. MultiMediaCards are becoming the industry standard for compact removable storage media across multiple host platforms and markets, including cell phones, digital cameras PDAs, MP-3 music players, portable video games, GSM and laptop computers. MMCA headquarters are located at PO Box 2012, Cupertino, CA 95015-2012. More information is at www.mmca.org.

MultiMediaCard is a trademark of Infineon Technologies, AG, and is licensed to the MMCA (MultiMediaCard Association). Company/product names mentioned may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and are used for identification purpose only.

Editors Note: The term MultiMediaCards is always spelled out as one string, with the MM and C in caps. The MultiMediaCard Association may be abbreviated MMCA.