Since the ever expanding computer peripheral industry started booming, we have witnessed the introduction of several dazzling technological wonders. Thus, floppy disks were replaced with the more convenient CD-ROMS, which allowed data of up to 700 MB to be stored and hence gained more preference. But then again the entire process of burning files in a CD-ROM was deemed long and tedious. Also, CD-ROMS are not resistant to dust or scratches and that always used to be a major concern for professionals. Cut to 2008 and floppy disks are almost extinct. Also, CD-ROMS are no longer preferred for carrying important documents and are instead used as an ideal backup source. The reason for this major shift in preferences is the advent of these wonderfully crafted pen drives. Not only are these pen drives more convenient and user friendly, but are also very attractive, easily portable, faster, and compact and are made available by in different forms and most importantly at a reasonably worthy price tag. Also, flash drives consume very less power whereas some other storage devices such as the portable hard disk consumes 3 to 4 times the power used up by flash drives.

Size does matter

The storage capacity of the earliest pen drive was 16 MB. But as the demands increased, the capacity also became directly proportional. Today, pen drives are available in 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 16 Gigabyte capacities. Coming years will see further rise in storage capacity, which will result in further increase in demand of these wonderful utility devices. With the corporate sector preferring to use high-end pen drives, there is no doubting the fact that these pen drives will outsell other disk storage devices. 256 MB was the standard size a few years ago. 1 GB drives were in huge demand in 2007. Year 2008 will see 2 GB drives dethroning 1 GB ones.

Multi-utility drives - The new phenomenon

The choices available in the range of pen drives in the industry are as vast as one can ever imagine. Pen drives can be broadly classified into three categories viz., high speed series for performance driven users, value series for value driven users and security series meant for professionals who wish to protect their important data. Also, not only are professionals getting involved into multi tasking, but these tiny gadgets are also meant to serve you with two or more features. The new 'Business Pen Drive' is a tactful way to take USB memory with you. The USB 2.0 support fastens your data transfer and also allows you to save large files like pictures or movies in seconds. The 'MP3 Pen Drive' consists of MP3, WMA and FM Radio players. Moreover, it also has an LCD display enabling the user to choose his favourite songs or radio station and hence this pen drive acts like a portable media player. Also available is the pen drive with USB Bluetooth Dongle, which allows one to connect to all bluetooth enabled devices and hence share the required files. And yes, we also have pen drives comprising of cameras, which enables us to capture photographs instantly. These are only a few amongst the wonderful plethora of pen drives that corporate professionals can choose from. The transformation from USB Pen Drives to multi-function equipments has been amazing to say the least. Some flash drives also support biometric fingerprinting security enabling users to protect their data. The masses and the classes have benefitted immensely from this transformation. USB Pen Drives have undoubtedly aided the computer peripheral industry in taking a giant leap forward.

Packaging sells

Today, the varieties available in pen drives are unimaginable for any common man. The packaging styles for those pen drives used by several manufacturers are simply breathtaking. A few manufacturers have very cleverly integrated USB pen drives into other tools commonly carried by people such as a watch, writing instruments, and even the Swiss army knife. Also, some have been built-in with novelty cases such as toy cars or LEGO bricks. Such tactics work to the advantage of the users and can benefit them in more ways than one. Also, one can use pen drives as promotional tools or as corporate gifts by printing corporate logos or brand name on them.

Issues concerning pen drives

Most modern operating systems can read and write to flash drives without any additional device drivers. The flash drives present a simple block-structured logical unit to the host operating system, hiding the individual complex implementation details. Also, Flash drives are much more tolerant of abuse than mechanical drives, but can still be damaged or have data corrupted by severe physical impacts. Moreover, pen drives are also susceptible to viruses, although less in comparison to floppy disks, but can still be adversely affected. Also, improperly wired USB ports can destroy the circuitry of a flash drive, a danger in home-built desktop PC's. In addition, improper flash drive packaging can cause it to detach from the host computer. Such cases can be overcome by using a short extension cable to relieve tension on the port.

Industry overview

According to a few industry sources, disk storage in India, which was 4 peta bytes in 2003, is growing at a rapid rate of 60 per cent and is likely to cross 50 peta bytes this year. Amongst various pen drive brands, Transcend accounts for a majority of the market share and is the leader in this segment. Having said that, brands such as Kingston, SanDisk, Phillips, iBall and Sony have also made their mark on the pen drives industry. Cost of pen drives vary slightly from one brand to another. It has also been noticed that the price of pen drives has been slashed by 25% since the past 2 years as the demand has been seen to be fluctuating. Earlier, these storage devices were in huge demand with the kind of euphoria created by its arrival. However, just like any other electronic peripheral, pen drives too have had to face price drops due to varying demands. But this should not worry anyone as the demand will pick up with the arrival of newer products.

Manufacturers from some of the South East Asian countries are constantly keeping up the pressure on their European counterparts by packaging their products in fashionable patterns. This will no doubt have an impact on the organised sector in India and hence will also influence the price factor. To keep their product demand afloat, Southeast Asian companies will keep providing multi-utility pen drives to be in contention all the time. Also, fake pen drives are raking in the moolah. Taking advantage of a price-sensitive market like India, where users demand for quality products at a reasonable price, reputed brand names are being misused. Duplicate branding is done by imprinting logos of popular brand names on these fake goods. These products are imported in India and are sold openly in the Indian market. Furthermore, these drives look like a genuine buy because of the packaging, which is done in such a manner that it easily comes across as an original product. Hence, the unorganised sector is slowly but surely gaining momentum in the pen drives segment as well. Having said that, distributors of International brands are pretty strong and are expected to eventually curb these fake products.

Hence, the industry of pen drives is vastly dependent on how fake brands are curbed and how manufacturers can raise their standards in increasing the innovative qualities in packaging of these devices. A few more International brands are likely to take the pen drives industry by storm and that is going to create more opportunities for competition leading to far better products in terms of size, looks, security etc. Thus, the tiny gizmo looks all set to achieve further glory.