Panasonic announced on Friday that it plans to launch a 1GB Secure Digital card first in Japan in April

Panasonic announced on Friday that it plans to launch a 1GB Secure Digital card first in Japan in April, then worldwide in May. The electronics maker said at the CeBit trade show in Hannover, Germany, that the card will cost about $500. SD cards have been used in a variety of consumer electronics devices, including digital still cameras, digital video cameras, handheld computers and phones. Panasonic said it plans to continue to boost the storage capacity in future cards and also to increase the rate of writing data to the cards.