Microboards Brings Flash Duplication to Content Distribution Market

Minneapolis, MN –January 7, 2008 – In a shocking move in the optical industry today, duplication leader Microboards Technology announced an offering of hardware and supplies for duplicating on Flash media. Known for its broad range of DVD, CD, and Blu-ray duplicators and printers, Microboards has expanded its offering to include the write-many media that is taking the data world by storm.

Flash Media has taken off largely because of its portability and non-volatility. Increasing capacity and near-instantaneous access speed makes it more popular every day, especially in mobile applications. “Flash media is more than the memory stick for your camera or your USB thumbdrive – it is everywhere”, says Microboards CTO John Westrum. “It is in cellphones, the iPod, GPS devices, and cars”.

Despite the groundbreaking news from Microboards, no indication was given that Microboards is moving away from their CD/DVD mainstay business. “Optical media still has a growing place in the content world”, says Aaron Pratt, Microboards Director of Marketing. “CD/DVD still has a much better cost-per-distributed-unit. It has a great printable surface for labeling, a process Microboards is well-known for in the optical market. And the optical disc is the only solution when write-once permanence is important. Even though the cost-per-megabyte is dropping rapidly with flash, and obviously people are moving a lot of their content onto flash, widespread distribution of data, video, and audio is still being done on CD and DVD.”

Instead, Microboards acknowledges that there are emerging applications and needs that Flash works well for. “Flash has a unique and rapidly growing place in the market, and we are positioned to help organizations benefit from it” says Pratt. Microboards’ channel of professional A/V resellers, for example, has expertise in helping content owners distribute digital video and audio, and the added offering gives them another tool to use to benefit their customers.

Microboards offering includes a multi-drive standalone duplicator (operating without a computer) that automatically erases, formats, or copies thumb drives asynchronously. “Keeping with our tradition of high-speed and ease-of-use, our flash duplicators are designed to enable flawlessly copying from master to target without intensive setup or operator training”, says Westrum. Microboards will also offer a complete line of blank flash drives.

“We anticipate a broader offering in the very near future, as we continue to gather feedback around the types of media that our users would like us to support, as well as the way they are using the new media” says Westrum. “As always, we design our products for our users – making them simple to use so that they can focus on their business.” More information is available at www.microboards.com.

About Microboards
Microboards ignited the industrial disc duplication revolution in the 1990s with the CopyWriter Tower and continued its tradition of leadership with the first DVD Duplicators and other award-winning products. Today, Microboards continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning automated publishers and industrial disc printers.

Editorial Contact: 
Microboards -Aaron Pratt, Director of Marketing 
P: 952.556.1600 E-Mail: aaronp@microboards.com
8150 Mallory Ct · Chanhassen, MN · 55317