USB 3.0 - Branded USB Memory Sticks

USB 3.0 is here. It may not have arrived with much of a fanfare and its arrival might, in the short term at least, be more interesting to classic early adopters but its arrival is significant and will have a bearing on the promotional USB memory stick market.

The reason why the arrival USB 3.0 is significant is because USB 3.0 flash drives read and write at 10 times the speed of comparable USB 2.0 memory sticks. But there is also a further and more subtle change heralded by the arrival of USB 3.0 and that is the ability of USB sticks to send and receive data at the same time

So, if you want your branded USB memory sticks to carry loads of data and be able to "play" this data quickly then you're going to love USB 3.0. Because they transfer data at 4.8 gigabytes per second they are ideal for handling large file formats like videos, music and digital photos. Running full motion, HD adverts directly from a USB 3.0 stick is going to be easy and will create all sorts of interesting creative opportunities for advertising agencies.

Although support for USB 3.0 started to appear on new PC's in 2010 its only going to start being rolled out on most PC's this year. If your PC is not equipped with USB 3.0 then you won't have to dump your PC or Mac to benefit from the performance improvements but you will have to install a new PCI card to upgrade it to USB 3.0 - this is normally pretty easy to do and the cards will be relatively cheap.

If you don't have USB 3.0 on your PC or Mac but you're given a USB 3.0 memory stick the stick will still work but it'll just work at USB 2.0 speeds.

In the short term the only drawback of using promotional USB 3.0 memory sticks is cost. As with all new "tech gear" its expensive when it first comes out and at the moment there is quite a premium to pay for USB 3.0 sticks. Give it another 12 months and the price differential between 2.0 and 3.0 will start to close rapidly and with 2-3 years all promotional USB flash drives will be USB 3.0.

The challenge in the intervening period is to get your creative hats on and think about how you can best use the improvements in speed and interaction offered by these new USB memory sticks.

Phil is part of the team at USB2U. USB2U is a specialist supplier of Branded and Promotional USB Memory Sticks. We offer fast turnaround times, excellent advice and support and free design and mock-ups. If you are considering Branded Memory Sticks or want custom USB memory sticks then please contact us - we 'd be delighted to hear from you.

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