Manufacturers Olympus and Fujifilm are finally deciding to phase out their line of xD flash memory cards after years of customer complaints, unacceptable compatibility issues and the onslaught of the more efficient SD memory card technology. There are even xD card readers that come with SD adapters, which is pretty much the manufacturers admitting xD’s shortcomings.

Frustrated consumers around the world declare this a long time in coming, but it looks like finally the many issues experienced while using xD memory cards can be done away with by switching to the SD format.

Corruption Issues And Data Loss

The main problem reported is that its digital cameras have ended up with corrupted data files. Losing irreplaceable memories this way is simply unacceptable. What’s worse is that there’s no one thing that you can do to prevent data corruption. Anything from pushing extra buttons while processing photos to turning off the camera while taking a picture to using low batteries can cause trouble.

Excessively Short Lifespan

These days, memory cards are built featuring a special technology known as “wear leveling.” This technology tracks the usage of the memory on a card by number of blocks, which helps to increase the lifespan of a memory card. This feature only becomes more important as memory cards shrink in physical size.

Olympus and Fujifilm haven’t incorporated this issue into their xD memory cards. This causes the xD memory cards to wear out long before an average SD card would, forcing customers to purchase yet another poorly performing card.

Low Memory And A Crawling Speed

When the xD memory card was released back in 2002, its 512 MB of storage space was reasonable. In today’s world, however, the manufacturers have upped the storage space to 2 GB. This is unquestionably better than 512 MB, but it isn’t much when compared to 32 GB on certain SD cards. Most MP3 players these days have more than 2 GB of space, for crying out loud. The xD memory cards also transfer data at a much lower rate than the competition.

Low Quality Meets High Prices

The xD memory card has less storage space, experiences data corruption problems, refuses to use wear leveling technology, and is much slower than the SD cards. You would think that, given these facts, the xD would be cheaper, but then you’d be wrong. A 2 GB xD memory card is available on the shelf for around $20, while a similarly sized SD card is half that. As a matter of fact, some larger SD cards are cheaper than that 2 GB xD.

Last Thoughts: xD Memory Cards Cost Too Much For Too Little

Today’s economy dictates that consumers must buy what hurts the wallet the least. It’s no surprise then that the xD is failing and Olympus and Fujifilm are starting to pull the product. If they are not going to make an effort to improve what they’re selling, then there is no reason for customers to stay loyal or new customers to make an effort to find them.

Smart media cards or an Olympus xD memory card will provide enough storage space to have fun with the electronic devices of your choosing. Do you want to try one today? Buy the memory cards you need from authentic xD or SD dealers for the most up-to-date products.