News Center

USB Flash Drives Expected to Become Number One Removable Solid-State Storage Format in 2005

San Jose, Calif., May 4, 2004 - The USB Flash Drive Alliance (UFDA) today announced that USB flash drives (UFD) are expected to become the number one removable solid-state storage format in 2005. This new USB flash drive market forecast is provided by industry analysts such as Gartner Dataquest¹, Semico Research and Web-Feet Research. This data, available on the UFDA web site at www.usbflashdrive.org, shows that between 67 and 120 million USB flash drives are expected to ship in 2005, producing 2 to 3 billion dollars in revenues worldwide.

"The USB Flash Drive Alliance has made significant progress towards its goal to establish the USB flash drive category and educate consumers about these easy-to-use devices," said Steffen Hellmold, president of the UFDA. "The analysts' forecasts support our strong belief that USB flash drives are positioned to become the number one removable solid-state storage format by next year surpassing Secure Digital (SD) cards and Memory Stick®² cards. Given the projected growth of the USB flash drives and the planned USB flash drive software innovations from Microsoft, the USB flash drive category is poised to explode."

Microsoft announced today at its 13th Annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) taking place May 4-7, 2004 at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center in Seattle, its intention to introduce new software and tools that fully take advantage of the multiple functions and features USB flash drives have to offer.

"Microsoft is committed to supporting USB flash drives in our software products, and through our work with industry partners on optimized interaction of software and hardware, we are building new functionality that dramatically enhances the user experience," said Tom Phillips, general manager of the Windows Hardware Experience Group at Microsoft Corp. "Microsoft is looking to the UFDA to help drive the understanding of benefits that USB flash drives provide customers through its programs that continue to educate consumers about both the current and the future benefits of USB flash drives."

Gartner is expecting the USB flash drive market to continue its significant growth in existing and new applications and markets. "According to our latest research, we forecast that the USB flash drive will lead all removable solid-state storage formats in terms of Revenue, Units and Megabyte shipments for calendar year 2005," said Joseph Unsworth, senior analyst for Gartner Dataquest.

About the USB Flash Drive Alliance
The USB Flash Drive Alliance (UFDA) was formed to educate consumers about the benefits of these portable, easy-to-use, powerful devices. A USB flash drive is about the size of a pack of gum, requires no additional software or connectors, and is powerful enough to store up to 2 GB of data - providing consumers and businesses with a fast and easy way to store and transport digital information. Sponsor members of the UFDA include Genesys Logic, Kingston Technology, Lexar Media, Inc., Phison Electronics Corp., PNY Technologies, Inc. and Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. Associate members are Add On Technology, Alcor Micro, Corp., Crucial Technology, DataFab, GlobalWare Solutions, Inc., Infineon Technologies Flash GmbH & Co. KG, Memory Experts International, Microsoft Corp., Peripheral Enhancements Corporation, SimpleTech, Inc., and Viking Interworks. For more information about UFDA, please refer to its Web site at www.usbflashdrive.org.

¹ Source: Semiconductor Forecast Worldwide--Forecast Database, February 2004, Joseph Unsworth

² Memory Stick®² is a registered trademark of the Sony Corporation.

Return To Top

Sitemap | Terms of Use

Copyright 2003 USB Flash Drive Alliance