What is Fake / OEM / Original memory stick?




Updated 29 April 2009

What is Original Memory Stick?

Original memory sticks are memory stick licensed by Sony. Original memory sticks support MagicGate. What does MagicGate do? Nothing much. lol~

What is OEM Memory Stick?

Original equipment manufacturer (OEM) memory sticks are bundled free with Sony Ericsson mobile phones or cameras. You know, the buy camera free 1gb memory card? Those are OEM memory cards. Original but no packaging. Their warranty is tied to the warranty of the mobile phone or camera.

Please do not confuse OEM with fake.. OEM is original. Fake is fake.

What is fake memory stick?

These are all fake memory sticks. They look very real.. yes. It is impossible to tell.

However, they are easily differentiated by the MagicGate check.

Fakes work, but slowly. 4gb will take 40 minutes to transfer. For original memory cards, 4gb will take only 16 minutes. The true price of fake memory cards should also be about 60% of original memory cards. The failure rate of fake memory stick is climbing. About 1 in 5 fails now (It was 1 in 50 last year). The China factories have been "recycling" the faulty ones, hoping these faulty cards get lost somewhere and never comes back.

*Figures based on sales data