A pretty cool example of how dropping prices are opening up new markets....
chicagotribune.com
Data storage devices showing lots of flash
Replacements for floppy disks can be erased, reused
By Julio Ojeda-Zapata
St. Paul Pioneer Press
Published March 27, 2004, 12:00 AM CST
When Toyota recently promoted its 2004 Lexus RX330 sport-utility vehicle in a U.S. mass mailing, it didn't print up glossy brochures and cram them into bulky envelopes.
Instead, it sent out 21,000 digital devices smaller than cigarette lighters.
Although some recipients may have been confused at first, they surely caught on when the pulled off a plastic cap and found a universal serial bus plug. Sticking the plug into a computer USB port, they gained access to the device and its contents: RX330 pictures, video clips, interactive demos and more.
Lexus isn't the only company that is handing out such gizmos—which go by such names as thumb drive, pen drive, pocket hard drive and USB flash drive—like candy.
The storage devices, which keep digital data in non-mechanical flash memory, recently have displaced the venerable floppy disk as a convenient means for transporting and distributing computer files.
As a result, flash drives have become popular among companies that distribute promotional materials by mail, at industry gatherings or in private meetings to clinch deals.
The drives have, in effect, become the newest kind of business card.
Computer disks in the shapes of cards became popular in the 1990s once PCs with the necessary CD-ROM drives became commonplace.
The practice of "beaming" electronic cards between hand-held organizers took off when Palm devices began sporting infrared ports.
And many e-mail users like to attach vCards—a kind of electronic card—to messages so recipients can update address books.
Now, flash drives are becoming the darlings of conventions and trade shows, largely because of their increasing ubiquity and affordability.
About 30 million were sold worldwide last year, including about 5 million in the U.S., and 32 megabyte models can be found for as little as $17.
When Frank Beeck of Brooklyn Park, Minn.-based Siemens Transportation Systems prepares for one of his industry's exhibits, he no longer needs to weigh himself down with printed materials.
Increasingly, he puts his information on 64 mb flash drives because these can be quickly reloaded with updated information.
An alternative he considered, the CD-ROM, can't be updated once recorded and must be replaced with a newly burned disc. This takes too long, he said.
Beeck's flash drives proved so popular at one recent transportation show that he ran out even though he had tried dipping into his stash of several dozen devices selectively. No matter: He dashed to a local RadioShack store and bought a fresh batch.
Marlene Nelson of the St. Paul-based Sight Creative and Interactive multimedia-design company creates a variety of promotional materials for customers such as Medtronic Inc. She increasingly is putting the materials on flash drives.
Their key advantage, said Nelson, is that they can be reused. Once recipients have perused their contents, they're free to delete them and use the drives for their own files.
"With a CD," she said, "you're done."
Chris Johnston, a California-based Microsoft technology consultant to businesses, likes to hand out a flash drive that can be upgraded. The SimpleTech Bonzai model stores data on a 32 mb Secure Digital card that is easily removed and replaced with a higher-capacity card.
Flash drives are such handy digital-data repositories that some software companies are eyeing them as software-distribution alternatives to standard optical discs.
Flash drives are so ubiquitous that they have a trade group, the USB Flash Drive Alliance (www.usbflashdrive.org).
The "killer application" for such drives remains portable storage, said Steffen Hellmold, the group's president. But, he said, they have other uses—for instance, as authentication devices for locked rooms, cars or computers.
Many consumers remain unaware of the devices, Hellmold said, "but they've proven themselves. They're here to stay." |
