Kingston Unveils $1000 USB Flash Drive

Barence writes "Kingston has unveiled the 'world's first' 256GB flash drive, raising flash drive storage to the kind of capacity you normally associate with laptop hard disks. Kingston claims the drive is 'ideal for netbook users who want to extend the limited capacity of their machines,' although given that the device costs about twice as much as a netbook, buyers could probably get more storage by purchasing two of the cheap ultraportables. The device is made on a build-to-order basis, with a suggested UK retail price of £650.52 including VAT — that's an astonishing $1074.69 at current exchange rates. Not exactly cheap and cheerful."

256GB Flash Ultraportables?

[theelectron]

given that the device costs about twice as much as a netbook, buyers could probably get more storage by purchasing two of the cheap ultraportables

What kind of flash netbooks are you buying with that much storage?

Re:But how damage-resistant is it?

[Dotren]

I agree. Furthermore, I'd want to know how heavy it is (I doubt it is very heavy at all but it does look rather beefy) as I carry usb flash drives around with me all the time at work. Then again, I'd be extremely leery of taking this anywhere. Should it get stolen or dropped somewhere, thats a rather large chunk of change gone.

I can't imagine every buying one of these. If you need a mobile PC with that much hard drive space, why wouldn't you just get a normal laptop with some of the other nice features? I realize netbooks are ultra small and mobile but still...

A Bet I made.

[jameskojiro]

I made a bet to someone that by October of 2010 we would see some sort of USB 1TB Flash drive. I think my bet is safe.

Re:256GB Flash Ultraportables?

[CannonballHead]

I doubt they are "cheap" netbooks if they have 128gb ssd's in them. On the other hand, "cheap" relative to the prices of the 256gb flash drive is perhaps a relevant discussion... hehe.

I use USB Flash drives as diskettes

[dalmiroy2k]

Since I got rid of my 3.5' 1.44MB drive and disks several years ago, cheap USB Flash Drives have become their replacements.
As long as the pendrive is fast and robust enough, I don't care much as size. 1 or 2GB are ok for the use I am giving them.
I have a dedicated and encrypted drive for my work, another with personal data that's in a Ziplock inside my safe, another one in the internal USB port my motherboard has, another one in my DVD player front USB port, another four in those mini hubs behind my pc, etc.
If I need better and faster portable storage with respectable size, I use my 300GB WD Passport Essential that got in a Amazon deal. It has multiple partitions, some encrypted.

Wrong Direction

[Erik Fish]

What they need to be working on is a $2 flash drive.

NAND prices are way up this year, but if USB flash drives are going to be true floppy replacements the manufacturers need to find some way to make the small (less than a gig) sizes cheap and keep them that way.

Re:But how damage-resistant is it?

[shish]

An interesting question for any physics geeks -- what's the terminal velocity of the average USB stick, and is that velocity terminal to the stick? If they're sufficiently light and air resisting I suspect you could drop one from space without damage...