To make the situation worse, interoperability isn’t what it could be, so the battery or memory from one device won’t necessarily work in another; even when it’s a similar item, such as two cameras from the same manufacturer.
For example, my smart phone, two digital cameras, two video cameras and PlayStation Portable all require different battery; charging; interface and memory options. Although both of my digital cameras are from Olympus, they use different memory and batteries; with my DSLR having a $500 battery pack, that while really very nice, was a bit pricey. The same thing goes for my video cameras; both from Panasonic and both requiring different battery packs and memory cards.
It’s easy to understand why manufacturers do this, as it can dramatically increase their revenue from a given product line, but the cost to consumers and to the environment is enormous and a needless waste of resources.
I’m on about this today because I just dropped another $90 on memory; picking up a new 4GB Memory Stick PRO Duo for my PSP. To be honest, I’ve been around long enough to remember PCs that came with “big” 20MB hard drives – and the expense of upgrading storage and memory in those days – so seeing sooo much memory in such a small form-factor and at such a “reasonable” price still impresses me.
And besides, since I’m too old for “Trick or Treat” tonight, I thought this would make up for my not getting a big bag of candy; so I’m off to format my new memory stick – and to you, I’ll say “Happy Halloween” – and watch out for the “bite” when you get your bytes…