The flash drive was born in 1998 at IBM, as a floppy drive replacement for the ThinkPad line of products. Almost all people know what a floppy drive and a floppy disk isbut a larger percentage isn't quite sure about the flash drive. Technically, it is a "NAND-type flash memory data storage devices integrated with a USB interface". It is fairly new to technology, yet many computer literate people enjoy its small size, lightweight, removable and the fact that it's rewritable. Another huge advantage is its memory capacity, ranging from 8 megabytes to 64 gigabyteslimited only by the densities of its current flash memory. Unfortunately, as its capacity moves up, so does the price. Almost all types of drive use the USB mass storage standard, supported by the modern operating systems, and most flash drives are active only when powdered by a USB computer connection. They require no other external power source or battery source.

There are several advantages of the USB flash drives as compared to the other portable storage devices, such as the floppy disks, Zip disks, and the CD-R/CD-RW discswith the floppy disc as the most popular. The USB flash drive is much faster, definitely holds more data, and is more reliable due to their lack of moving parts. They ignore the scratches and dust that plagues any earlier forms of portable storage, such as compact discs or floppy disks. Their design means they often survive impacts, dropped, crushed, and washed with a load of clothing. Because of all of this, they are perfectly ideal for transporting personal data or work files from one place to another. The user also wants to use them for carrying around personal data that they can access in different places. Being available in 8MB, 16MB, 32MB, and 64MB, they were marketed as the true floppy killer.

If you are the athletic type, a runner or jogger, who likes to listen to the tunes during your workout you want to look into a flash drive player. Even if you have a hard drive player it is smart to own a flash drive player because you'll want to take it running or jogging with you because the hard drive is bulkier (hence "hard" drive) and weighs more. It will skip and even break, where a flash drive is more comparable to the old school walkman players in its durability.

Next, most flash drive players come with neat little additions like a stopwatch or voice recorder. At first this may sound worthless or pointless to you, but sometimes a stopwatch can be handy while running and who hasn't had a great idea while exercising only to have it escape during the cooling off process? A flash drive player will give you more extras while coming for a reduced price tag.

Another nice extra when buying a flash drive player is you almost always have an FM tuner included, meaning if you are tired of the music you downloaded you can listen to your favorite local station. Flash drive players give you this, along with what was mentioned above, for a reduced price tag. Most flash drive players go for as little as $59 and as much as $149 depending on the brand and the size.

Six percent of the internet usage in year 2000 U.S. will jump to 62% in 2010, due to music downloading and the use of data compression, quickly transferring music over the internet. Also, a corresponding rise of portable digital audio players, and digital cameras became very popular due to their smaller sizes and much reduced cost.