SanDisk Corp. has announced the iXpand Flash Drive, the company's first USB Flash Drive designed specifically for iPhone and iPad.

"According to IDC, nearly three-quarters of all images are now captured on smartphones and tablets," says Dinesh Bahal, vice president, product marketing, SanDisk. "With this significant increase in mobile-generated content, consumers are looking for easy ways to manage it all. In fact, our research shows that 82% of U.S. smartphone users find transferring photos, videos, music and other files to be very important to them2. We created the iXpand Flash Drive to offer consumers a quick and safe way to move their favorite content between devices so it's available when and where they want it."

The iXpand Flash Drive transfers photos and videos from an iPhone or iPad to a Mac or PC without cables, Internet connections, or bandwidth limitations. In addition, it maintains the original photo or video resolution quality.

The iXpand sync app is free at the Apple App Store. It launches when the iXpand Flash Drive is plugged into an iPhone or iPad and can be configured to automatically sync photos and videos from the camera roll to the drive. In addition, users can store their favorite movies on the iXpand Flash Drive and instantly play them directly from the drive on their iPhone or iPad. Most popular movie formats3, including non-native and PC-friendly ones, like AVI & WMV, are supported.

The iXpand sync app also enables cross-platform encryption, offering consumers the ability to transfer and access their sensitive files from iPhones, iPads, PCs and Macs. Using the iXpand sync app, files can be password-protected on the drive directly from an iPhone or iPad and then decrypted on a Mac or PC — and vice versa.

The iXpand Flash Drive is available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities and is compatible with iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5, iPad Air 2, iPad Air, iPad mini 3, iPad mini 2, iPad mini running iOS 8 or iOS 7. The iXpand Flash Drive was designed with a flexible connector so it can connect directly to an iOS device without first removing the protective case.

The iXpand Flash Drive is available now at SanDisk.com, and is coming soon to select retailers globally. The 16GB and 64GB capacities will be available at US$59.99 and $119.99, respectively.