SanDisk's new 256GB microSD card is made for launching mobile apps

If you want to get as much storage space as you can get for your smartphone apps, SanDisk may have something for you to check out soon. During CES 2017 this week, the company announced its 256GB SanDisk Ultra microSD card. Besides the large storage capacity, this is also the first microSD card release that supports the new standard for storing and launching apps directly from the card.

You may remember that a couple of months ago, the SD Association, the group that controls the standards for both SD and microSD cards, announced the Application Performance Class, which is designed to label storage cards that offer solid performance for running mobile apps. The new SanDisk Ultra 256GB card is the first such product to meet the Application Performance Class 1 standards. It can support read input-output access per second (IOPS) of 1,500 and write IOPS of 500, which should be enough to launch and run mobile apps directly from the card. It also works with the SanDisk Memory Zone app for Android in the Google Play Store. It’s been designed to help manage and back up content on smartphones and tablets.

The SanDisk Ultra microSD card with A1 support will go on sale sometime in January for the price of $199.99.