When Toyota recently promoted its 2006 Lexus RX 350 sports utility vehicle in a U.S. mass mailing, it didn't print up glossy brochures and cram them into bulky envelopes. Instead, it sent out 21,000 digital devices smaller than cigarette lighters.
While some recipients may have been confused at first, they surely caught on when they pulled off a plastic cap and found a familiar Universal Serial Bus plug. Sticking the plug into a computer USB port, they gained access to the device and its contents: RX 350 pictures, video clips, interactive demos and more. Lexus isn't the only company that is handing out such gizmos — which go by such names as thumb drive, pen drive, pocket hard drive and USB flash drive — like candy.
The storage devices, which keep digital data in non-mechanical “flash” memory, have displaced the venerable floppy diskette as a convenient means for transporting and distributing computer files. As a result, the flash drives have become popular among companies that distribute promotional materials by mail, at industry gatherings or in meetings to clinch deals.
Flash drives are becoming the new darlings of conventions and trade shows, largely because of their increasing ubiquity and affordability. About 30 million were sold worldwide last year, including about 5 million in the United States.
When Frank Beeck of Brooklyn Park, Minn.-based Siemens Transportation Systems prepares for one of his industry's exhibits, he no longer needs to weigh himself down with printed materials.
Increasingly, he puts his information on 64-megabyte flash drives because these can be quickly reloaded with updated info if necessary. An alternative he considered, the CD-ROM, can't be updated once recorded and must be replaced with a newly burned disc. This takes too long, Beeck said.
Beeck's flash drives proved so popular at one recent transportation show that he ran out even though he had tried dipping into his stash of several dozen devices selectively. No matter: He dashed to a local Radio Shack store and bought a fresh batch.
Marlene Nelson of St. Paul, Minn.-based Sight Creative and Interactive multimedia-design company creates a variety of promotional materials for corporate customers such as Medtronic. She is increasingly putting the materials on flash drives.
Their key advantage, said Nelson, is that they can be reused. Once recipients have perused the devices' contents, they're free to use the drives for their own files. The “killer application” for such drives remains portable storage, said Steffen Hellmold, the group's president, but he said they have other uses—as authentication devices for locked rooms, cars or computers, for instance.
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