The popularity of branded USB drives among retail businesses and corporations has created a market for applications, services, and initiatives from suppliers that make the devices more useful and user-friendly. What follows is a brief description of some of these utilities and offerings designed to expand the diversity of USB devices.
Some companies use flash drives to help market their core services, like eMotion Picture Studios, a Canadian video production company that operates out of Ontario. As an extension of the high-quality marketing videos they create for clients, the company offers thumb drives with custom-printed logos and messages. Like many other providers of branded USB drives, eMotion pre-loads files on the drive for easy recall on end-user computers.
Concern for the environment is another popular cultural trend that has impacted businesses in every sector of the marketplace. The development of “eco-friendly” materials and organic processes is now a factor in the business models of virtually every manufacturer who creates a tangible product.
Because of this, companies like Shumsky Enterprises are creating a wide range of “green” products whose fabrication leaves behind little impact on the environment, including branded USB drives. By using biodegradable materials such as lead-free solder, these firms meet the standards of the European Union’s RoHS Directive, which limits ““the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment.”
What began, then, as a simple promotional initiative designed to increase brand-name awareness and encourage repeat sales has turned into a more complete solution for the distribution of proprietary or competitive information. Though there are hazards and security measures associated with such file-sharing, pre-loading these files and utilities on flash drives is a cost-effective way to attract customer loyalty.
There are other challenges associated with this higher-level use of branded USB drives, particularly when file sharing takes place within universities, municipalities, and government institutions. Two important factors come to mind. Because the core electronics of such devices are exported from a handful of OEM suppliers overseas, the quality of flash drives may suffer due to cost concerns, for example.
Another aspect of portable flash drives involves data recovery. Inevitably, pre-loaded files on USB drives may accidentally be deleted or damaged during use. In other cases, the files most often used by clients may be corrupted by a computer virus or due to software or operating system incompatibility. As a preventive measure, some companies that distribute branded USB drives offer utilities like data recovery software that can repair or retrieve deleted files.
Depending on the application, in other words how your thumb drives are being used, this may be an extra step that offers a measure of protection for important documents or a convenience for user groups who access certain files most often.
As technology advances and workgroups become more comfortable with them, suppliers and users will develop sophisticated uses for flash drives. Although most people still consider them simply as handy portable storage for computers, the versatility of branded USB drives will continue to develop in the future.
Tags: Branded Memory, Branded USB, Branded USB Memory, Branded USB Memory Sticks
This entry was posted on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 9:57 am and is filed under Branded Memory Sticks, Branded USB. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
