Emergence of USB Memory Sticks

The rapid emergence of USB memory sticks has taken the market by surprise. The technology and flexibility of the USB portable devices is increasing on a massive scale. Approximately 116 million of these devices were shipped by manufacturers in 2006. This is an increase of over 25 percent from the preceding year. In 2007, experts predicted the sales of removable memory sticks to increase by almost 300 percent.

Such whopping statistics provide a clear indication towards a recent trend to a much more faster and flexible solution than a floppy disk or compact disc solutions. It is believed that only ten percent of the users utilized their floppy disks, in 2003. Five years onwards, looking beyond 2008, we can safely assume the demise of the floppy disks, forever. Still, industry experts believe that a USB memory stick has a long way to go.

Consumers are getting used to the concept of more advanced and less costly memory sticks which can easily hold 1GB of data. The same memory stick can rewrite thousands of times and fulfills the need for long term storage. Now, it is not unusual to see memory sticks which can hold more than 32GB of data. A new generation USB memory stick can transfer at the rate of 30 Megabytes per second and can write the data at almost 15 Megabytes per second. As stated, the fast rate of data transfer is complemented by its immense storage capacity.

Companies are using it effectively to promote their brands and distribute vast quantities of information to the potential client. Large corporations see the USB memory cards as an effective solution to market their products through a process of distributing the content to several customers. The popularity of the USB sticks is largely in part due to the flexibility of backup solutions. Business owners and University students find it convenient to store large amounts of data for every day usage.

Almost all the new and refurbished computers support the USB technology. The newer version of Windows operating system provides plug and play compatibilities. Computer software is specifically designed to incorporate the USB technology. Simply, the absence of device drivers makes USB memory sticks a formidable technology that not only provides varied options but saves plenty of time.

There are computers that can boot from the USB flash drive; memory sticks that are water resistant and newer versions that can hold 64GB of data. It will not be an oversimplification to suggest that the future of portable storage is safe no matter what form the USB stick may take.