SanDisk, announced this week that shipments of their new 256MB Flash Memory and 802.11b Wi-Fi combo card will commence to online retailers in the next 30 days, for around $129. Pocket PC users have been waiting months for this device to be released. It was expected to come with the announcement of Microsoft Pocket PC 2003 SE and will support older Pocket PC versions back to 2002.

“The SD Combination card makes the best use of the handheld’s SDIO slot by combining two important features into a single, small-sized card — wireless connectivity and storage,” said Dave Smurthwaite, product marketing manager for mobile card solutions at SanDisk. “In addition to the freedom and flexibility of wireless access, the 256MB of memory conserves precious internal memory of the handheld device by allowing the user to save files directly to the card without first saving them to the internal memory of the device. Without storage on the card, handheld users cannot download large files to their devices because the available internal memory of the device is too small. The introduction of this card will meet demand of next generation wireless applications such as the download of large streaming media files from public and private networks for personal use.”

The new SanDisk SD Combination card ships with consumer and enterprise-grade security solutions, including WEP, 802.1x, PSK and WPA on the Windows CE platform. It uses Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) Wireless LAN technology to provide bandwidths of up to 11Mbps and ranges of up to 800 feet depending on environment.

The low-power device is designed to minimize battery drain, a key consideration for handheld computer users. In addition, combining flash memory and Wi-Fi in one card also represents a cost savings to consumers because if the cards were bought separately they would cost considerably more.