The leap in memory technology from 2005 to 2014

Photo posted by History in Pictures, found via Frank Michlick. Click the photo to see its source.

One of the more interesting products to be announced at the recent Mobile World Congress this year wasn’t a mobile phone, but an accessory: SanDisk’s 128 GB (gigabytes, where a gigabyte is about 1 billion bytes) SDXC card. A mere nine years ago (two years prior to when the entire mobile industry was redefined by the iPhone), 128 MB (megabytes, where a megabyte is about 1 million bytes, one thousandth of a gigabyte) was the bleeding edge for MicroSD-sized memory cards.

Here’s another way to think of this leap in memory technologies:

As of this writing (May 2, 2014), the SanDisk Ultra 128 GB MicroSD card sells at Best Buy for $200. Popping it your SD card-capable mobile device (most Androids and Windows Phone devices) will give it the storage capacity of the current starter model MacBook Air.

That’s a lot of apps, music, video, and who knows what other kinds of data once some smart app developers imagine what’s possible on a mobile device once you give it the drive space formerly reserved for desktop and laptop systems.