The USB flash drive is one of the greatest personal data storage inventions to date, showing itself more popular than ever more than a decade after its invention. As the popularity of these drives increases and economies of scale drive down manufacturing prices on their components, the variety of flash drive designs continues to increase over time.
Flash stick began as little more than the latest personal storage device innovation, following up on more limited devices such as the floppy diskette, the CD, and the DVD. The primary purchasers of USB drivers were naturally home consumers looking for a better personal storage and transport medium. In the early days they were just large enough to handle whatever data needed to be transported between home and school or home and work.
As prices continue to come down on flash sticks and the capacity of USB drives continues to increase, people are beginning to use these devices as far more than document storage and transport devices. Take a look at some common, modern uses of USB sticks:
In the world of professional photography, inexpensive USB flash drives have provided a more efficient means of distributing photo samples and digital copies of photography done for clients. These photographers once had to rely on the distribution of CDs, DVDs, or even printed photos to do the same thing. But photographers have quickly come to realize that USB sticks are not only more efficient; they can be branded in order to provide an extra sense of professionalism and boost prospects of future sales.
In this digital era, our whole lives can seemingly be recorded on USB sticks, including such happy occasions as births and marriages. Some facilities will even sell you a 3-D pregnancy scan, which is of course delivered on a USB drive. Not only are wedding photos captured on flash, but at some weddings you'll receive flash drive wedding favors, each containing some meaningful pictures and a storyline of the relationship leading up to the wedding, while even a memorial service may now include receiving a memory drive, in this case loaded full of pictures and videos of the life to be remembered.
Business cards are one of the more surprising places you'll find USB memory drives, as they serve a dual purpose of being a business card and providing a file storage medium for the holder. While the goal is for them to some day actually be the same size as business cards, these USB drives tend to be about 2mm in density but are well worth the extra size when they can be packed full of multimedia brochures. These business cards are a better value than you might expect and can really build a strong bond between you and your clients.
Speaking of multimedia loaded onto USB memory drives, many people have grown weary of piles of more commercial paperwork but are delighted to receive brochures or catalogs on a reusable stick. In some cases, publishing to printed sticks is more cost-effective than professional printing too.
USB memory sticks are becoming the darling of the promotional giveaway industry, with millions of sticks handed out each year by schools, nonprofit organizations, and businesses. They can not only be loaded up with promotional materials in electronic form, but they can have logos and information printed or engraved on their surfaces. When you want to be able to hand over all of the sales materials you have to an interested individual while at the same time improving your brand image and client bonds, a promotional memory drive can help you do all of this at once.
As the price of a customized printed stick with a sufficient storage capacity now costs less than 2 each when purchased in bulk, it is a safe bet to assume that USB memory sticks are here to stay for a while. USB technology is also being advanced, with USB 3.0 (also known as Super Speed USB because it is many times faster than the previous USB 2.0 standard) beginning to see mass adoption in the computer industry.
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