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Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung are among a host of companies leading the development of a new universal flash memory format.

The new card, dubbed Universal Flash Storage (UFS), "will provide a revolutionary leap towards supporting very low access times required for memories, as well as enabling high-speed access to large multimedia files, while

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reducing power consumption in consumer electronic devices," according to a joint statement.

The group claims the new format will also offer a huge boost in performance. "Today, users experience a three minute access time for a 90 minute (4GB) high-definition movie; with the new standard, this would be reduced to a few seconds," it claims.

Format battle

The group claims the UFS cards will be compatible with mobile phones, digital cameras and other consumer devices. But the lack of support from any of the leading camera manufacturers suggests the group faces an uphill battle in making UFS an ubiquitous standard.

However, few will argue that something needs to be done about the bewildering array of current, largely, incompatible formats. Amazon.co.uk, for example, currently lists eight different types of memory card, even before you get to sub-sections such as CompactFlash I and CompactFlash II.