US : SanDisk Corporation announced a worldwide agreement with 3, a leading video mobile networking company in the UK, to supply SanDisk-branded SD cards for select video mobile phones offered by 3.

3 is the first company in Europe to offer video mobile services and is a leader in providing a 3G network that can deliver high quality audio and video content to mobile phones. The announcement was made at the CTIA trade show in Las Vegas, where SanDisk is demonstrating products in booth #929.

Hutchison 3G UK Limited delivers third-generation mobile multimedia and communications services under the 3 brand in the UK, offering a convergence of media, information and telephony to enable live video calls, multimedia content and entertainment while on the move.

"The 3G environment is very complex and we needed a partner that would be able to meet the technical, operational and logistical challenges that we face," said Gareth Jones, chief operating officer of 3 UK. "We chose SanDisk because it is the leading company in the flash card industry with a well known brand worldwide and proven track record of providing the support that allowed us to bring our 3G products to market quickly and efficiently."
Heinz H. Schulte, SanDisk's managing director, EMEA OEM Business Sales, said, "We are pleased to work with 3 as they deliver the next generation of 3G mobile phones. These new handsets offer high-level features that take advantage of the removable SD card's ability to store high quality video clips, music, images and other media-rich content. In addition, these cards can be used in all devices that support an SD slot to allow consumers to easily share their images, music and other data between their 3G mobile phones and the more than 900 SD devices including digital cameras, PDAs and computers that are already in the market."

3 services will be available from sister companies in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Israel and Sweden.

SanDisk, the world's largest supplier of flash memory data storage card products, designs, manufactures and markets industry-standard, solid-state data, digital imaging and audio storage products using its patented, high density flash memory and controller technology.