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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

FOR ANNUAL AND TRANSITION REPORTS PURSUANT TO

SECTIONS 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

(Mark One)

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2003

OR

For the transition period from                                  to                                 

Commission file number 000-31623

SIMPLETECH, INC.

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)

3001 Daimler Street

Santa Ana, California 92705-5812

(Address of principal executive offices, including zip code)

Registrant’s Telephone Number, Including Area Code: (949) 476-1180

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: None

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes  þ    No  ¨

Indicate by a check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.    þ

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Exchange Act Rule 12b-2).    Yes  ¨    No  þ

As of June 30, 2003, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, the approximate aggregate market value of voting and non-voting common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant was $33,045,584 (based upon the last closing price for shares of the registrant’s common stock as reported by The National Market System of the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System as of that date). Shares of common stock held by each officer, director, and holder of 10% or more of the outstanding common stock have been excluded in that such persons may be deemed to be affiliates. This determination of affiliate status is not necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes.

As of March 1, 2004, there were approximately 47,867,654 shares of common stock outstanding.

Documents Incorporated By Reference

Certain information required in Part III hereto is incorporated by reference to the Proxy Statement for the Registrant’s 2004 Annual Meeting of Shareholders to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to Regulation 14A not later than 120 days after the end of the fiscal year covered by this Form 10-K.

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SIMPLETECH, INC.

FORM 10-K ANNUAL REPORT

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This Annual Report on Form 10-K, including information incorporated herein by reference, contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements relate to expectations concerning matters that are not historical facts. Words such as “projects,” “believes,” “anticipates,” “will,” “estimate,” “plans,” “expects,” “intends,” and similar words and expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Although we believe that such forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot assure you that such expectations will prove to be correct. Important language regarding factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from such expectations are disclosed in this Report, including without limitation under the caption “Risk Factors” beginning on page 14 of this Report. All forward-looking statements attributable to SimpleTech are expressly qualified in their entirety by such language. We do not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

PART I.

Overview

SimpleTech designs, manufactures and markets custom and open-standard memory solutions based on Flash memory and dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, technologies. We offer a comprehensive line of more than 2,500 products and specialize in developing high-density memory modules, memory cards and storage drives. One way that we distinguish ourselves in the marketplace is by offering both Flash and DRAM-based solutions used by consumers and original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs. We believe this allows us to service a diverse customer base with multiple memory formats thereby enabling our customers to purchase all of their memory requirements from one supplier.

The growth in demand for consumer electronic devices such as digital cameras, MP3 digital audio players, personal digital assistants, or PDAs, digital camcorders and smart phones, as well as the increased memory requirements of these devices, has helped fuel the increased use of non-volatile data storage Flash memory, or NAND Flash. NAND Flash is the preferred technology for these applications because it is lightweight, durable, rugged, compact and retains data without power. Our Flash cards store digital content such as pictures, digital music, video clips and files in a small form factor with large storage capacity and low power consumption. We offer our Flash cards in all major media formats, including CompactFlash, Secure Digital and MultiMedia cards. In addition to the demand in consumer markets, our Flash business is also expanding as a result of the growing number of OEM applications in which Flash drives are replacing rotating disk drives due to improved performance, reliability and size. These OEM applications include military subsystems, in-flight information systems, casino gaming systems, embedded controls for industrial automation and medical equipment. According to Gartner Dataquest, in a report dated September 2003, NAND Flash industry revenues are expected to grow from $2.4 billion in 2002 to $7.3 billion in 2007. Our Flash revenues increased from $24.9 million for the year ended December 31, 1999 to $80.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2003.

Our DRAM products target primarily high-performance computing applications, including switches, routers, high-end servers, workstations, desktops and notebooks. As the applications that we serve expand and as the complexity of these applications increases, the need for the customization of our products in these applications also increases. We have developed proprietary technologies to address the increased need for customized solutions. For example, our patented IC Tower^® stacking technology allows multiple memory chips to be stacked together to increase the capacity of a memory module without expanding its footprint. This technique increases memory board density significantly over conventional techniques and is particularly well-suited for applications where high memory capacity, cost and space are critical. We have recently experienced growing demand for our IC Tower stacking products driven by our increased penetration of the server market. We believe this

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technology allows our customers to design memory-intensive systems on a differentiated and more price competitive basis. We also believe the growth of the DRAM market will be driven primarily by the next PC upgrade cycle, the demand for increased memory content per PC and a resumption of IT spending. According to Gartner Dataquest, in a report dated September 2003, the DRAM industry is expected to grow from $15.5 billion in 2002 to $25.3 billion in 2007.

We offer memory solutions through our Consumer and OEM Divisions. Our Consumer Division sells open-standard memory storage products such as Flash cards, DRAM modules, USB mini drives and hard disk drives which are used primarily as upgrades in consumer electronic devices and computing systems. We believe our comprehensive line of products allows our customers to efficiently manage their inventory purchases and therefore reduce their costs by consolidating their purchases of memory and storage products into a single vendor. Our OEM Division sells primarily customized memory solutions for newly-manufactured systems, with most sales based on a cooperative design effort between our design engineers and our OEM customers. We believe the ability of these equipment manufacturers to shorten product development cycles and accelerate time-to-market is critical to their success. In response to this trend, we believe equipment manufacturers are increasingly outsourcing the design, development and manufacturing of memory products to third-party memory providers, such as SimpleTech. We believe our design, manufacturing, testing and logistics expertise, along with our proprietary technologies, enable us to respond quickly to our customers’ rapidly changing product and service requirements as well as meet their time-to-market schedules.

Industry Background

The memory market can be divided into several types of IC devices that are designed to perform specific functions within computer and other electronic devices or systems. Two of the major types of memory products are Flash and DRAM. Flash is considered a non-volatile memory since it is able to retain data without a power source. Since DRAM requires a constant power supply to retain data, it is considered volatile memory. DRAM has historically dominated the memory industry in terms of market size and scale of production and continues to be one of the highest volume semiconductors manufactured today. In recent years, the memory market has expanded to include Flash due to the proliferation of consumer electronic devices designed to allow increasing user mobility. The growth in shipments of these consumer electronic devices and their unique and expanding storage requirements have led to the increased demand for Flash memory products.

The Flash memory industry is divided into two primary segments: data storage, or NAND, and code storage, or NOR. Data storage Flash products are commonly used for storing large volumes of data in small form factor and in environments characterized by high levels of shock, vibration or temperature fluctuation. In contrast, code storage Flash products are typically used in less memory-intensive applications. Substantially all of our Flash product revenues are derived from the sale of data storage Flash products. Data storage Flash products are primarily used to store digital content such as pictures, digital music, video clips and files in consumer electronic devices such as digital cameras, MP3 digital audio players, PDAs, digital camcorders and smart phones. The demand for these consumer electronic devices has grown rapidly. In addition, these consumer electronic devices have become smaller in size while requiring increasing amounts of memory which is driving the demand for high-density, small form factor Flash memory solutions. Flash memory is noiseless, considerably lighter, more rugged and consumes substantially less power than a rotating disk drive. These characteristics also make Flash drives a better storage alternative than rotating disk drives in extreme environments such as those often found in the military, aerospace and communication applications.

The DRAM industry growth is driven by unit growth in the markets for PCs, high-performance workstations, servers, switches, routers and the Internet infrastructure. In addition, DRAM growth is fueled by an increasing amount of memory content used in these systems. We also anticipate that the expected PC replacement cycle and resumption of IT spending will continue to drive the demand for DRAM memory.

The Flash and DRAM memory supply chain consists of numerous participants including semiconductor manufacturers, third-party module and card manufacturers and a variety of distributors and mass market retailers

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who sell to end-users. Major memory semiconductor manufacturers have focused primarily on large volume opportunities, producing open-standard modules and cards as base-level memory for the leading OEMs of desktops and notebooks, digital cameras, cell phones and other mass markets. In contrast to serving the base-level memory needs of these OEMs, third-party module and card manufacturers, such as SimpleTech, provide open-standard upgrades used by consumers. In addition, we believe the increasing complexity of computing systems as well as the demands placed on them has caused OEMs to rely increasingly on third-party design and manufacturing of custom memory products in which open-standard modules and cards are not adequate.

The SimpleTech Solution

SimpleTech designs, manufactures and markets a comprehensive line of memory and storage products used in consumer electronics, high-performance computing, defense and aerospace systems, networking and communications and other OEM applications. We believe our comprehensive line of products allows our customers to efficiently manage their supply chains by consolidating their memory and storage product purchases.

Product Features

Consumer Division

Our Consumer Division sells open-standard memory storage products such as Flash cards, DRAM modules, USB mini drives and hard disk drives used as upgrades in or enhancements to consumer electronics and computing systems. Our Consumer Division customers sell our products through the following channels: value added reseller, or VAR, mail order, distributor, and mass market retailer. We believe we are able to strengthen our relationships with these Consumer Division customers and develop the SimpleTech brand name through various marketing programs, such as volume purchase rebates, joint marketing, account manager incentives and lead generation. We also provide ongoing customer support, including on-line pricing and navigation tools, toll-free technical support and account manager training programs.

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OEM Division

Our OEM Division sells primarily customized memory solutions for newly-manufactured systems, with most sales based on a cooperative design effort between our design engineers and our OEM customers. We offer our OEM Division customers a comprehensive technology solution from concept to design to the creation of prototypes through volume production and testing. We believe our quick-turn design capabilities and automated manufacturing and test processes allow our OEM Division customers to quickly and cost-effectively bring products to market. In addition, our capabilities allow our OEM Division customers to focus their resources on activities and technologies in which they add the greatest value, such as system design, sales, marketing and distribution. We believe our technical capabilities and manufacturing strengths allow our OEM Division customers to cost-effectively design and implement advanced memory chip technology in high-volume product applications.

Xiran Division

In January 2002, we acquired the assets of Irvine Networks, LLC, including its intellectual property portfolio, and formed our Xiran Division. Xiran develops advanced board-level solutions that optimize server performance for networked storage applications, including IP storage. The Xiran Division completed testing of its prototype units, successfully demonstrated product performance at several industry tradeshows and shipped evaluation units to potential customers during the third quarter of 2003 and recorded nominal revenues in the fourth quarter of 2003. There can be no assurance the efforts thus far will result in future profitability of the Xiran Division. In addition, the success of the Xiran Division will depend in significant part upon the ability to develop, introduce and sell its products on a timely and cost-effective basis, and to respond to changing customer requirements.

Products

We offer a comprehensive line of more than 2,500 memory and storage products using our proprietary design and manufacturing technologies. Substantially all of our Flash and DRAM memory products comply with industry standards and are based on a variety of industry architectures. Sales of memory products accounted for substantially all of our total revenues in 2003 and 2002. The balance is composed of other product revenue such as hard disk drives.

Flash Products

Our Flash products are commonly used as portable digital media in consumer applications, including electronic devices such as digital cameras, mobile phones, MP3 digital audio players and PDAs, and as rugged replacements for hard disk drives in industrial applications, such as military systems and network infrastructure equipment. Our Flash products are compatible with the majority of today’s industry standards.

We offer a broad line of Flash products in various form factors and capacities, including:

CompactFlash memory cards. CompactFlash products provide full PC Card ATA functionality but are only one-fourth the size of a standard PC Card. CompactFlash’s small size, durability, low power consumption and ability to operate at either 3.3 volts or 5.0 volts make it well-suited for a range of current and next-generation, small size consumer applications such as audio recorders, digital cameras, MP3 digital audio players and PDAs. CompactFlash products provide interoperability with systems based on the PC Card ATA standard by using a low-cost passive adapter.

Secure Digital and MultiMediaCard Flash memory cards. Secure Digital and MultiMediaCard Flash memory cards are used in data storage applications and are about the size of a postage stamp. Their slim, compact design makes them an ideal removable storage solution for designs including mobile phones, audio players, digital cameras, and PDAs.

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USB Flash drives. Our USB Flash drive portfolio consists of the embedded Bonzai Xpress and the upgradeable Bonzai. The Bonzai Xpress comes in a broad range of fixed capacities of up to 1 gigabyte (GB). In contrast, the Bonzai offers unlimited capacity through use of our Secure Digital or MultiMediaCard flash memory cards, which can be removed from the Flash drive enabling the use of multiple Flash memory cards on the same Bonzai, upgrade of the Bonzai to higher storage capacities and the use of a single Flash memory card among multiple devices. Our USB Flash drives are primarily replacements for floppy disk drives, with performance differentiators being ease of use, longer rewrite life, and scalability. The presence of USB ports on most desktops and laptops makes portable, pocket-sized USB Flash drives a convenient device to store, transfer and carry personal files.

ATA Flash PC cards. Our ATA Flash PC Cards are used in storage, data backup and data logging applications. Our products are available in the industry standard PC Card Type II form factor.

Solid-state Flash drives. Our solid-state Flash drives are available in a 2.5-inch hard disk form factor and are targeted at applications that require embedded data storage devices. They offer reliable, rugged, and low-power data storage and are drop-in replacements for rotating hard drives. Our solid-state Flash drives are ideal solutions for industrialized servers, desktop PCs and notebook PCs; military and aerospace systems; telecommunication devices; and other mission-critical applications that store data under adverse environmental conditions.

Flash disk modules. Our Flash disk module products target embedded systems where device footprint is a critical parameter. There is no electrical circuitry or software interface change required when replacing a standard hard drive with a Flash disk module. The main benefit of Flash disk modules is that they are easier to incorporate into designs because they are less than one-quarter the size of a 2.5-inch hard drive and they plug directly into the motherboard, thereby eliminating the need for cables. Specifically, the product line is available in a 44-pin configuration, which addresses similar functionality to a 2.5-inch hard disk drive, and a 40-pin configuration, which addresses similar functionality to a 3.5-inch hard disk drive.

The following table describes certain of our Flash modules as of March 1, 2004:

Stacking DRAM and Flash Products

DRAM modules and Flash card products. We offer custom and application-specific stacked DRAM modules including a wide range of dual in-line memory modules (DIMMs) and small outline (SO) DIMMs. Our stacking DRAM products are used primarily in high-performance PCs, high-performance servers, workstations, switches and routers, and other custom systems. Our stacked DRAM modules are available in various module form factors and capacities of up to 4GBs. We offer many of these modules utilizing different DRAM architectures such as double data rate (DDR and DDR II), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), and legacy architectures, such as extended data out (EDO) and fast page mode (FPM). Our stacking Flash products are used primarily in high-end consumer digital applications, such as professional digital cameras and camcorders. We utilize IC Tower stacking technology in our Type II CompactFlash memory cards, enabling us to continuously provide high capacity CompactFlash memory cards.

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The following tables describes certain of our stacking DRAM and Flash card products as of March 1, 2004:

IC Tower stacked components. Our patented IC Tower stacking technology is a high-density memory packaging technique that uses standard DRAM IC devices to create high-capacity components. We offer a wide selection of stacked components to be used on memory modules and on our customers’ specific applications. This technology is used in complex, high-capacity module designs and systems. It provides a cost effective solution for our customers by offering chip densities that are less expensive than non-stacked components on a per megabit (Mb) basis.

The following table describes certain of our IC Tower stacking components as of March 1, 2004:

DRAM Products

We offer a full range of DRAM products, including single in-line memory modules (SIMMs), DIMMs and SO DIMMs. Our DRAM products are used primarily in higher performance computing, communications, and industrial applications. Our standard DRAM products are available in various memory module form factors and densities of up to 4GBs. We also offer many of these products utilizing different DRAM architectures such as DDR, DDR II, SDRAM, RDRAM, and legacy products such as EDO and FPM.

The following table describes certain of our non-stacking DRAM products as of March 1, 2004:

Other Products

External hard disk drives. We offer the SimpleDrive line of storage devices for data storage and back-up. Our SimpleDrive Desktop product line provides high-density, high-speed, cost-effective storage in 120GB to

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400GB capacities. Our SimpleDrive Portable product line offers similar features in a smaller form factor in capacities ranging from 20GB to 80GB.

Hard drive upgrade kits and external hard drives. We offer hard drive upgrade kits for most major brands of notebook PCs. Our products range in capacity from 20GB to 80GB. The primary use of these products is to enhance the storage capacity of notebook PCs. We also offer USB and PC card data transfer/backup kits for desktop and notebook PCs.

Add-in PCI cards. From our Xiran Division, we offer a series of accelerator cards designed for content delivery and networked storage applications. These all in one add-in PCI cards offer multi-functional utility as they incorporate Gigabit Ethernet Network Interface cards (GbE NIC), a Storage Interface Host Bus Adaptor, and a TCP/IP and iSCSI accelerator with on-board memory for buffering. These cards are designed to offload all network protocol processing and network applications from the main processor to improve overall system efficiency.

Research and Development

Our research and development efforts are focused on developing reliable, high-performance and cost-effective memory products to address the needs of traditional and emerging memory applications. We believe the timely development of new products is essential to maintaining our competitive position. Our engineering staff, which consists of 70 persons as of December 31, 2003, works closely with our OEM Division customers and provides services throughout the production cycle, including component selection, schematic design, layout, manufacturing and test engineering expertise. We design our products to be compatible with existing industry standards and, where appropriate, develop and promote new standards. An important aspect of our research and development effort is to understand the challenges presented by our OEM Division customers’ custom design requirements and satisfy them by utilizing our proprietary technologies and our technical expertise. In the course of meeting our customers’ challenges, we are often required to develop new technologies and processes, which are later added to our design library. Our design library consists of over 1,000 designs that are available for a wide variety of custom and open-standard product configurations.

We focus primarily on new high-speed memory modules, improvements in manufacturing processes and technologies, and improvements in test routines and related software. We plan to continue to direct our research and development efforts toward the design of new memory products which address the requirements of our Consumer and OEM Division customers. Our IC Tower stacking technology is a critical component of our research and development effort as it allows us to design solutions that are continually migrating to higher densities for our customers. Our IC Tower stacking technology enables us to produce high-density Flash and DRAM products by manufacturing products in a three-dimensional form. These products offer higher-density capacities in the same footprint as the traditional two-dimensional designs. We stack unmodified memory devices to produce higher-density and smaller form factor Flash cards and DRAM modules. We believe this capacity enables us to shorten our customers’ design cycles for high-density products to lead times normally associated with non-stacked memory solutions. In response to the growth in Flash-based applications, we are focusing on new Flash solutions that provide improved storage capacities, higher-speed read and write capabilities, smaller sizes and new interfaces.

In January 2002, we acquired the assets of Irvine Networks, LLC, including its intellectual property portfolio, and formed our Xiran Division. By retaining Irvine Networks’ engineering staff, we have added significant expertise in content delivery and storage system design. During the first quarter of 2003, the Xiran Division was granted a patent for an advanced solution designed to accelerate high-bandwidth content delivery by servers.

Design, Manufacturing and Test

Design and production. The typical production cycle consists of a design stage followed by a prototype stage and ends with full production of the final product. We believe the length of the design stage has been

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reduced due to rapid improvements in technology. In recent years customers have demanded shorter design and production cycles. In response, we have developed quick-turn design and manufacturing services. By working with our OEM Division customers early in the design and prototype stages, we believe we are able to resolve critical design issues effectively and efficiently, thus shortening the time from prototype design to volume manufacturing. In addition, we believe working closely with our OEM Division customers throughout the design and production stages allows us to gain important insights into their future product requirements. We believe our quick-turn design and manufacturing services also allow us to introduce upgraded products to the consumer market on a timely basis to coincide with new product releases by these customers.

Manufacturing. Our manufacturing processes are highly-automated and involve the use of specialized equipment for the production of memory products. Our manufacturing systems have been optimized to support the placement of a large number of IC devices on each memory board. We believe we are able to achieve a high manufacturing yield and minimize direct labor costs as a result of our design efficiencies, high level of automation and general manufacturing expertise. Because our manufacturing systems can be easily configured for different memory products, we have the ability to offer our customers short manufacturing and test cycles on small and large projects. We also have developed an automated method of manufacturing our IC Tower stacking products which we believe results in further manufacturing efficiencies. This adaptability is also reflected in our ability to manufacture our Xiran products out of our existing facilities. Our manufacturing process is ISO 9001 certified.

Test engineering. An important aspect of our manufacturing operations is our focus on test engineering. We test all of our memory products upon completion of manufacturing, which we believe results in low returns due to product defects. We believe our test engineering expertise will continue to grow in importance as the speed and complexity of memory products increase. Our test engineering group develops proprietary processes which, together with our continued investment in advanced testing equipment, have enabled us to consistently produce high-quality products.

Customers

We sell our products through our Consumer and OEM Divisions. We have no long-term sales contracts with our customers. Our Consumer Division sells our products through a variety of distribution channels, including VARS, mail order, distributors, and mass market retailers. Our OEM Division markets our products to OEMs, leveraging our custom design capabilities to offer custom memory solutions to address their specific needs. Our ten largest customers accounted for an aggregate of 51.9% of our total revenues in 2003. CDW Computer Centers accounted for 19.2% of our total revenues in 2003 and 21.1% of our total revenues in 2002. No other customer accounted for more than 10.0% of our total revenues in 2003 or 2002.

Consumer Division

In 2003, our Consumer Division sold to more than 1,000 customers through VARs, mail order, distributors, and mass market retailers. In addition, through our consumer distribution arrangements, we supply certain of our products to e-commerce companies for their sale of these products on the Internet.

OEM Division

In 2003, our OEM Division sold to more than 200 customers, including sales through OEM distributors and contract manufacturers that incorporate our products into systems they assemble for our OEM Division customers. We define our OEM Division customers as OEMs that have purchased our products directly or ordered our products from OEM distributors and contract manufacturers. Our OEM Division customers make the purchasing decisions on substantially all of the products we sell through OEM distributors and contract manufacturers.

We expect that sales of our products to a limited number of customers will continue to represent a majority of our revenues for the foreseeable future and believe that our financial results will depend in significant part

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upon the success of our customers’ businesses. We have experienced changes in the composition of our major customer base from quarter to quarter as the market demand for our customers’ products has changed and we expect this variability to continue in the future. For risks associated with our customer relationships, see “Business—Risk Factors—Sales to a limited number of customers represent a significant portion of our revenues and the loss of any key customer would materially reduce our revenues.”

International sales of our products accounted for $39.8 million, or 18.8%, and $26.7 million, or 14.8%, of our total revenues, in 2003 and 2002, respectively. During these periods, no single foreign country accounted for more than 10.0% of our total revenues. Substantially all of our international sales are export sales, which are shipped from our domestic facility to foreign customers. For additional information regarding our international sales, see Note 11 to our Consolidated Financial Statements and “Business—Risk Factors—We face risks associated with doing business in foreign countries, including foreign currency fluctuations and trade barriers, that could lead to a decrease in demand for our products or an increase in the cost of the components used in our products.”

Sales and Marketing

Consumer Division

We ship SimpleTech brand-name products directly to VARs, mail order, distributors and mass market retailers. In addition to in-house sales representatives, our sales efforts in the consumer channel are supported by manufacturers’ representatives. For the mail order and mass market retailer channels, we advertise in magazines and newspapers as a way of bringing end-users to our customers’ locations. Some of our Consumer Division customers also feature our products in their advertisements in exchange for a fee. We offer certain VARs volume rebates and work with their customers to qualify our products for their information system departments. Volume rebates are used to incentivize certain resellers, rewarding them with a rebate for our products sold. For consumer distributors, we purchase corporate image advertising, offer volume rebates and joint marketing programs, and generate leads at electronics tradeshows and refer those potential customers to our distributors. Through joint marketing programs, we work together with resellers to incorporate the SimpleTech brand in the resellers’ existing marketing plans, such as catalogs and web banner ads. In addition, we have developed direct advertising programs with certain of our consumer distributors’ e-commerce customers in which we market our products on their websites. We also offer account manager incentives, which include sales contests and reward programs designed to sustain reseller loyalty while also creating excitement for increased sales activity.

OEM Division

Our OEM Division uses an internal direct sales force complemented by an external sales force of manufacturers’ representatives and OEM distributors for sales to OEM Division customers in the United States and internationally. We pursue our customer base on both a geographic and account-specific basis. We believe these combined sales forces have the local presence, market knowledge and strategic insight to allow us to more effectively market our products to a larger number of OEM customers. In addition, as part of our sales and marketing efforts, our experienced applications engineers work closely with our OEM Division customers in designing our products into their systems.

Customer Service and Support

We provide our customers with comprehensive product service and support. We work closely with our OEM Division customers to monitor the performance of their product designs and to provide application design and support. This also provides us with insight into defining their subsequent generations of products. Our standard OEM Division customer support package is generally offered with all product sales and includes full technical documentation and application design assistance. During our OEM Division customers’ production phase, we provide extensive support which includes training, system-level design, implementation and integration support. We believe that tailoring our technical support to our OEM Division customers’ needs is

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essential to the success of our product introductions and customer satisfaction. Our Consumer Division customers receive technical support on an unlimited, toll-free basis and are assigned a dedicated technician familiar with their account. We also train the account managers of certain Consumer Division customers to keep them informed about changes in our product lines. In addition, we offer Consumer Division customers on-line pricing and navigation tools, and a personalized web page available through our extranet which features personalized information such as promotions, new products and contact information.

Competition

We conduct business in an industry characterized by intense competition, rapid technological change, evolving industry standards, declining average sales prices and rapid product obsolescence. Our primary competitors in the third-party memory module industry include: Crucial Memory, a division of Micron Technology, DPAC Technologies, Kingston Technology, Lexar Media, M-Systems, PNY Technologies, SanDisk, and SMART Modular. Our competitors include many large domestic and international companies that have substantially greater financial, technical, marketing, distribution and other resources, broader product lines, lower cost structures, greater brand recognition and longer-standing relationships with customers and suppliers.

We expect to face competition from existing competitors and new and emerging companies that may enter our existing or future markets. These companies may have similar or alternative products that are less costly or provide additional features. In addition, some of our significant suppliers, including Micron Technology and Samsung Semiconductor, are also our competitors. These suppliers have the ability to manufacture competitive products at lower costs as a result of their higher levels of integration. Further, these suppliers may reduce the supply of memory chips available to the industry or us. We also face competition from current and prospective customers that evaluate our capabilities against the merits of manufacturing products internally. Competition also may arise due to the development of cooperative relationships among our current and potential competitors or third parties to increase the ability of their products to address the needs of our prospective customers. Accordingly, it is possible that new competitors or alliances among competitors may emerge and rapidly acquire significant market share.

We compete in our target markets based primarily on quality, design and manufacturing technology, price and responsiveness to our customers’ needs. We expect our competitors will continue to improve the performance of their current products, reduce their current product sales prices and introduce new products that may offer greater performance and improved pricing, any of which could cause a decline in sales or loss of market acceptance of our products.

To remain competitive, we must, among other things:

The memory, high-performance computing, networking and communications, consumer electronics and OEM markets are subject to rapid technological change, product obsolescence, frequent new product introductions and enhancements, changes in end-user requirements and evolving industry standards. Our ability to compete in these markets will depend in significant part upon our ability to successfully develop, introduce

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and sell new and enhanced products on a timely and cost-effective basis, and to respond to changing customer requirements.

Suppliers

IC devices represent more than 90% of the component costs of our manufactured Flash cards and DRAM modules. We purchase these IC devices from a small number of suppliers. In 2003, our significant suppliers of IC devices included:

We are dependent on a small number of suppliers to supply Flash IC and DRAM IC devices. We have no long-term DRAM IC device supply contracts and only have a limited supply contract with Renesas, formerly Hitachi Semiconductor, for Flash IC devices. The contract with Renesas, which will terminate on June 30, 2004, provides no assurance that Renesas can or will agree to supply the quantities of Flash IC devices we may need to meet our production goals. Accordingly, we periodically review opportunities to develop alternative sources for our Flash IC and DRAM IC device needs. However, our options are very limited because of the small number of memory manufacturers. Our dependence on a small number of suppliers and the lack of any guaranteed sources of supply expose us to several risks, including the inability to obtain an adequate supply of components, price increases, late deliveries and poor component quality. Renesas, Matsushita and Samsung supply substantially all of the IC devices used in our Flash memory products. In addition, Micron Technology and Samsung currently supply a majority of the DRAM IC devices used in our DRAM memory products. We have executed IC device consignment inventory agreements with some of our major DRAM and Flash memory suppliers. As a result of the agreements, our inventory risk with respect to these customers has decreased significantly as we are not financially obligated for the inventory until it enters the production process. For risks associated with our supplier relationships, see “Business—Risk Factors—Our dependence on a small number of suppliers for integrated circuit, or IC, devices and inability to obtain a sufficient supply of these components on a timely basis could harm our ability to fulfill orders.”

Seasonality

In the past, we have been impacted by seasonal purchasing patterns resulting in lower sales generally in the first and second quarters and higher sales in the fourth quarter of each year. Other factors, including component price fluctuations, may distort the effect of seasonality. Our ability to adjust our short-term operating expenses in response to fluctuations in revenues is limited. As a result, should revenues decrease to a level lower than expected in any given period, our results of operations could be harmed.

Backlog

Sales of our memory products are made under short-term cancelable orders. We include in our backlog only those customer orders for which we have accepted purchase orders and to which we have assigned shipment dates within the upcoming six months. Since orders constituting our backlog are subject to change due to, among other things, customer cancellations and reschedulings, and our ability to procure necessary components, backlog is not necessarily an indication of future revenues. In addition, there can be no assurance that current backlog will necessarily lead to revenues in any future period. Our combined backlog was $12.5 million as of December 31, 2003 and $5.8 million as of December 31, 2002. Our Consumer Division backlog was $5.0 million as of December 31, 2003 and $1.5 million as of December 31, 2002. Our OEM Division backlog was $7.5 million as of December 31, 2003 and $4.3 million as of December 31, 2002. Our ability to predict future sales is limited because a majority of our quarterly product revenues come from orders that are received and fulfilled in the same quarter.

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Intellectual Property Rights

We regard our patents, trademarks, trade secrets and other intellectual property as critical to our success. We rely on patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secret laws, confidentiality procedures, and employee disclosure and invention assignment agreements to protect our intellectual property rights.

As of March 1, 2004, we owned 11 U.S. patents, including U.S. Patent No. Re. 36,916 related to our IC Tower stacking products, and 11 additional patent applications were pending. We have agreements to license our technology to third parties. In addition, we have entered into several licensing agreements to license the technology of others. License fees related to the license of our technology and our license of third-party technologies were nominal for all periods presented in this report and are expected to be nominal in the foreseeable future. Although we consider the patents currently held by us to be critical to our success, there can be no assurance that any patents currently held by us or any patents which may be granted to us in the future will not be challenged, invalidated or circumvented, or that rights granted thereunder will provide meaningful protection or other commercial advantage to us. There can be no assurance that third parties will not develop similar products, duplicate our products or design around the patents currently owned by us or which may be granted to us in the future. Because we view intellectual property rights as critical to our success, we intend to pursue future patents and other intellectual property rights in the U.S. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in these endeavors. In addition there can be no assurance that our trade secrets and know-how may not become known to third parties, or become part of the public domain, which in either case would harm our financial performance and business operations.

We have on at least one occasion applied for and may in the future apply for patent protection in foreign countries. The laws of foreign countries, however, may not adequately protect our intellectual property rights. Many U.S. companies have encountered substantial infringement problems in some foreign countries. Because we sell some of our products overseas, we have exposure to foreign intellectual property risks.

The semiconductor industry is characterized by vigorous protection and pursuit of intellectual property rights. We believe that it may be necessary, from time to time, to initiate litigation against one or more third parties to preserve our intellectual property rights. In addition, from time to time, third parties may bring suits against us. For details regarding our pending intellectual property lawsuits, see “Legal Proceedings” and “Business—Risk Factors—We are involved from time to time in claims and litigation over intellectual property rights, which may adversely affect our ability to manufacture and sell our products.”

In the event of an adverse result in any such litigation, we could be required to pay substantial damages, cease the manufacture, use and sale of certain products, expend significant resources to develop non-infringing technology, discontinue the use of certain processes or obtain licenses to use infringed technology. Any litigation, whether as plaintiff or as defendant, would likely result in significant expense to us and divert the efforts of our technical and management personnel, whether or not such litigation is ultimately determined in our favor. In addition, the results of any litigation are inherently uncertain.

In the event we desire to incorporate third-party technology into our products or our products are found to infringe on others’ patents or intellectual property rights, we may be required to license such patents or intellectual property rights. If we obtain licenses from third parties, we may be required to pay license fees or make royalty payments, which could reduce our gross margins. If we are unable to obtain a license from a third party for technology, we could incur substantial liabilities or be required to expend substantial resources redesigning our products to eliminate the infringement. There can be no assurance that we would be successful in redesigning our products or that we could obtain licenses on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. In addition, any development or license negotiations could require substantial expenditures of time and other resources by us.

As is common in the industry, we currently have in effect a number of agreements in which we have agreed to defend, indemnify and hold harmless certain of our suppliers and customers from damages and costs which may arise from the infringement by our products of third-party patents, trademarks or other proprietary rights.

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The scope of such indemnity varies, but may, in some instances, include indemnification for damages and expenses, including attorneys’ fees. We may from time to time be engaged in litigation as a result of such indemnification obligations. In addition, our insurance does not cover intellectual property infringement.

In our efforts to maintain the confidentiality and ownership of trade secrets and other confidential information, all of our employees are required to sign employee non-disclosure and invention assignment agreements. This agreement requires our employees to disclose, document and assign their interest in all inventions, patents and copyrights developed while employed with us. Our employees further agree to preserve all of our confidential information including trade secrets, customer information, know-how and other business information. There can be no assurance that these agreements will provide meaningful protection of our trade secrets or other confidential information in the event of unauthorized use or disclosure of such information. See “Business—Risk Factors—Our intellectual property may not be adequately protected, which could harm our competitive position.”

Employees

As of December 31, 2003, we had 422 full-time employees, consisting of 203 in manufacturing (including test, quality assurance and material management), 101 in sales and marketing, 48 in finance and administration and 70 in design and product development. Our employees are not represented by any collective bargaining agreements and we have never experienced a work stoppage. Management believes that relations with our employees are good.

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RISK FACTORS

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. Before purchasing our common stock, you should carefully consider the risks described below in addition to the other information in this Report. Our business, results of operations and financial condition may be materially and adversely affected due to any of the following risks. The risks described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks we are not presently aware of or that we currently believe are immaterial may also impair our business operations. The trading price of our common stock could decline due to any of these risks, and you could lose all or part of your investment. In assessing these risks, you should also refer to the other information contained or incorporated by reference in this Report, including our consolidated financial statements and related notes.

This Report contains forward-looking statements based on the current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections about our industry and us. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed in these forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors, as more fully described in this section and elsewhere in this Report. We do not undertake to update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason, even if new information becomes available or other events occur in the future.

We expect our quarterly operating results to fluctuate in future periods, causing our stock price to fluctuate or decline.

Our quarterly operating results have fluctuated in the past, and we believe they will continue to do so in the future. Our future results of operations will depend on many factors including: