We often get asked as much about the flash drives of tomorrow as we do about the drives of today.  At CFgear we love to talk USB, and we think these questions are awesome!  It means our customers are trying to ensure their purchase of CFgear flash drives will stand the technology test of time for decades to come.  Did you know that USB flash drives are already more than a decade old!  However, there have been some exciting announcements recently to ensure that flash drive technology remains a key opportunity in the data storage, file sharing and educational markets for the next decade and beyond.

USB 3.0 has been an industry buzz for the last six months or so.  Why?  Here a few reasons if you are not familiar with flash drives or USB 2.0/3.0 lingo!

The Benefits of USB 3.0 Technology

• Higher transfer rates – up to 4.8 Gbps.  This is almost 10 times USB 2.0 speeds!
• Increased maximum bus power and increased device current draw to better accommodate power-hungry devices
• New power management features
• Full-duplex data transfers and support for new transfer types
• Fully backwards compatible with USB 2.0 drives and devices

USB 3.0 Today

There are a few early developers selling 3.0 flash drives but most lack direct plug and play capability due to limitations on computers and devices containing only 2.0 ports.  Even the best 3.0 flash drives, typically, are required to use a SCSI adapter connector to allow for the connection to have any chance to increase speed, and, by most accounts (including ours), we could not detect a noticeable difference in speed between 2.0 and 3.0 ….. YET.

USB 3.0 Tomorrow

However, why are we getting excited?  Take a look at a couple of recent newsworthy events that dictate we aren’t too far off from USB 3.0 becoming more mainstream and allowing the price points to also fall into a more mainstream model.

1. Falcon Northwest now has USB 3.0 ports standard on all of the Mach V and Talon computing systems.
2. About 60% of Vizio televisions are now standard with functional USB ports
3. At last count at least 30 vehicles have USB ports as standards today:  The Chevrolet Cobalt, HHR,  the Pontiac G5,  the Pontiac G6 and Solstice, the Saturn Sky and Aura, and the Chevrolet Malibu are few on the road today.
4. Buffalo Kokuyo now sells a four port 3.0 USB hub device

Given these enhancements and quick peeks at the future of USB flash drives, with infant USB 3.0 upon us, it’s only a matter of time before every last flash drive, external HDD, scanner and printer you own is cruising along the SuperSpeed highway at bandwidth rates that will allow for movie downloads to happen in seconds, and that vacation video to be seen by simply plugging your flash drive into your TV!

The future for flash drives is an exciting.  Come along with CFgear for the ride!

January 2012 update: Visit our 3.0 USB flash drives page to order your high speed drives!

Related posts:

1. CFgear’s Review of 3.0 USB Flash Drive Technology
2. Vizio Announces 3.0 USB Ports on New PCs
3. Are USB Flash Drives Overtaking CDs & DVDs?
4. Custom Flash Drives Buying Tips
5. Impacts from Microsoft on USB Autorun functionality