While no organization tracks USB flash drives, Tech Data Canada Corp., the domestic arm of the global IT products distributor, offers some insight. Ray Gonsalves, director of product marketing, said his company's sales of USB drives rose by 15 per cent in 2006 and 56 per cent in 2005. At the same time, prices dropped by 20 per cent in 2006 and 31 per cent in 2005.
They are still in the early stages of development, said Mr. Gonsalves, who agrees with Mr. Chan that they may hold the key to computing portability in the future.
What USB drives have going for them is tremendous storage capability. The downside is that today's USB ports in computers cannot handle the data-transfer speeds that flash drives are capable of.
"USB ports are just in version 2.0 now," Mr. Gonsalves noted. The trick is not to create a small USB drive holding all standard office applications, which he said can be done; instead, the trick is to come up with a better USB port that can handle the speeds at which data needs to be transferred from portable drive to computer.
"We can easily see that coming," said Mark McCallum, division manager of Best Buy for Business at Best Buy Canada Inc., based in Mississauga, Ont.
"Right now top-end U3 USB flash drives have a number of basic applications on them like e-mail so you can take a drive to an Internet café and send e-mails and do basic work," he said.
"It does not take much imagination to see the natural extension of this trend," he added.
The USB drive is just one route toward truly portable computing, however.
Route1 Inc. is betting on its MobiKEY, a form of flash drive aimed at corporate network users that allows anyone on a network protected by Route1 to access any other computer on the network, using a flash memory card similar to the SIM cards used in cell phones.
MobiKEY has the added advantage of complete security protection, said Jerry Iwanski, Route1's chief technical officer. "What it does is offer secure access to your home computer from your office computer and vice versa," he said.
Secure is the key word. USB drives are so small they can be carried into secure facilities undetected and used to pirate corporate data or to introduce viruses or other forms of malware.
"That is a problem some software companies like Microsoft are addressing now," Mr. Dowd said. "New Vista versions offer protection for USB ports. I have even heard anecdotally of corporations using silicone to seal up USB ports."
None of this, however, detracts from the pleasure Mr. Smith and his estimators derive from their USB flash drives.
"My only worry is that they are so small I might lose one," he said. "Happily that has yet to happen."
USB flash drive
What it is: A memory storage device shaped like half a popsicle stick
and named for the Universal Serial Bus port it plugs into. Commonly known as a thumb drive or memory key.
How it works: Computers create
data as electrons; the flash drive stores those electrons and
allows other computers to retrieve them.
Capacity: Up to 4 gigabytes, with the most popular versions available in 256 MB, 512 MB, I GB, 2 GB and 4 GB.
Cost: $7.99 to $199
Versatility: While most drives store data, new U3 multi-gigabyte versions also contain applications that allow for e-mailing, file creation and file management.
