Samsung Electronics will begin mass production of the world's tiniest, fingernail-sized digital imaging flash memory card for mobile devices in the first half of the year. The world's largest memory semiconductor maker said March 31 it will begin production of the ultra-small Multimedia Card Micro (MMC Micro), measuring 12x14x1.1 millimeters, less than one-third the size of existing flash memory cards. Samsung Electronics is the first chipmaker to begin mass production of MMC Micro. MMC Micro stores digital images at a high speed of 7 megabytes per second and reads the data at a speed of 10 megabytes per second. The new NAND flash-embedded memory card is used for mobile devices such as cellular phones and digital cameras. Samsung Electronics will churn out 32-megabyte (MB), 64-MB, 128-MB and 256-MB models, which will be used as an external memory card for the world's first 5-megapixel digital camera phone SPH-V7800 and 7-megapixel camera phone SCH-V770 the company has developed. MMC Micro's dual voltage feature supports gadgets using 1.8-volt and 3.3-volt electric power, enabling electronics makers to use the chip for a wide range of mobile devices. It added that the memory card features high stability, users being able to write and erase information on the memory card 100,000 times without losing data. The 256-MB MMC Micro can store a maximum of 120 5-mega pixel digital photographs or 120 minutes of high-density video images. Samsung Electronics plans to begin commercial production of 512-MB and 2-gigabyte MMC Micros in the latter half of the year. MMC Micro is anticipated to emerge as the next-generation memory card standard, thanks to the lobbying of Samsung Electronics, which chairs the Multi Media Card Association (MMCA). Samsung Electronics, HP, Renesas Technology, Infineon Technologies Flash, Micron Technology, Nokia and three other global chipset makers currently serve on the board of the MMCA. Market research firm International Data Corp. projects the global memory card market to grow to $7 billion in 2008 and that the MMC Micro segment will grow at a bullish annual rate of more than 50 percent over the next three years.