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There’s no such thing as too much storage for a PDA or smartphone. Hence the every growing capacities of expansion cards in all shapes and sizes. Here we cover a couple of upcoming memory cards, a microSDHC from SanDisk and a MemoryStick PRO Duo from Sony, that set new storage highs for their respective formats this week during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

Perhaps the most popular type of expansion slot in smartphones and cell phones these days is the tiny microSD format. A pinky-nail sized microSD card measures a mere 11 x 15 x 1.0 millimeters.

Today, SanDisk is showing off a proof-of-concept 12GB microSDHC (High Capacity) card (see top image) - 4GB larger than the format's current high.

But that's not all.

By the time this card is released, sometime in June, it'll be 4GB larger, which means a single microSDHC card from SandDisk will offer a whopping 16GB increase in storage capacity for your mobile device. That's twice as much storage as is available in the non-expandable (no memory card slot) Apple iPhone.

The advent of the HC standard for SD cards has quickly increased the amount of storage available in a single card. Eventually, these types of cards will hit a high 32GB, the largest capacity supported by the specification.

Keep in mind, all types of SDHC cards - be it micro, mini or full size - can only be used by devices that are enabled for this faster and higher-capacity format. Fortunately, many devices shipping today support the SDHC standard, and some manufactures have upgraded their products to support it through software updates. Palm did this during the summer with a ROM upgrade for the Treo 700p, for instance.

Sony Memory Stick PRO Duo
Although not used in as many devices as SD cards, Sony's Memory Sticks own a significant portion of the expansion card market; Sony being Sony and all. There's all those Sony Ericsson Wallkman smartphones and Play Station Portables in the mobile device arena, for example.

On the CES show floor, Sony is showing off a 16GB Memory Stick PRO Duo card, the largest capacity yet offered in that format. Postage-stamp sized Memory Stick PRO Duos are about a third the size of a standard-sized Memory Stick PROs. As with SDCH, this Memory Stick format's theoretical limit is 32GB.

Sony plans to ship its new expansion card in March, a few months before SanDisk unleashes its new 16GB microSDHC model. It'll go for $300.