SanDisk apparently doesn't get it. The company has partnered with EMI Music, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group to launch slotMusic, which consists of microSD memory cards pre-loaded with DRM-free MP3 albums. The cards will be distributed through Best Buy, Wal-Mart and others. NYT claims the cards will sell for $7 to $10 a piece, which for the alleged 1GB card is quite a bargain. Get the stuff, save the music if it's any good, and then format the thing for use in your mobile phone!

The thing is that it appears the slotMusic memory cards will be preloaded with entire albums, something that's just obsolete now. Digital music distribution is so successful because people don't want to buy albums, which are 80% trash and 20% acceptable stuff. They prefer to pay 50% of the price for that %20 of the music, because the rest is just to fill up the track list and one usually never listens to it.

Why would several companies bet their money on a physical format, when that age is over for good? Beats me, and it looks like most of the analysts think the same way.

Immediately after Samsung Electronics CO Ltd’s $5.9 billion takeover offer was rejected by SanDisk Corp. on the grounds that it was considered "inadequate," the flash memory card maker’s shares went up significantly. Samsung was very interested in acquiring the company, as at this point it pays SanDisk an annual fee for royalties of about $350 million.

The bid was described by Samsung’s officials as full and fair, while pretending not to understand the issues raised by SanDisk. They also addressed the rejection, saying that they are deeply disappointed and that SanDisk’s expectations on its market value and also on its appropriate acquisition price are unrealistic. Its statement was based on the fact that the offer represented a 73 percent premium over SanDisk’s closing stock price on the day before the deal was announced, which was then listed at $15.04. Now, its shares are trading at around $22.