Article
© usbfactory 2008. May not be reproduced without permission
Promotion Revolution
The marketing advantages of a free gift or promotional giveaway at a trade show, event or exhibition are well documented, the only problem many people face is what gift to select for any given target audience. Pens, bags, mugs, badges, notebooks and caps all have their uses and their target audiences but exhibition attendees of the 21st century are demanding a little bit more. For promotional tools of the 21st century you need look no further than wholesale engraved USB drives, these seemingly innocuous pieces of plastic or brushed aluminium have revolutionised the promo gifts industry and upon seeing these custom USB drives its easy to see why. Engraved USB flash memory drives are becoming increasingly popular and give the promotional goods a real look of class that are guaranteed, yes guaranteed to be gratefully received by their intended recipient. The technology that goes inside these little gems should also not be understated, these wholesale custom USB flash memory drives come In a range of capacities to fit all personal and business specifications, from the 32mb to the mighty 16G, these add logo USB drives are certainly leaving their mark on both the events field and the wider technological world as a whole.
As well as providing the most competitive cost available anywhere, the USB Factory can also help you with your personalised USB drives design, we can make recommendations and offer advice as to what design would best suit your company objectives, please note that for the best results we need to receive your artwork in EPS format, although other formats are sometimes workable the branded USB drives imprinting can be adversely affected by low resolution formats. The impact that promotional USB flash memory drives can have on a target audience should not be underestimated; this particular area of promotional advertising really reflects upon your company and impresses prospective clients or business partners by showing them that you provide something outside of the normal exhibition fare. The technology used in our imprinted USB flash memory drives imprinting is widely and rightly regarded as the most technologically advanced in the industry and one look at our high quality merchandise will tell you why. Many people wrongly assume that all engraved USB drives imprinting techniques are the same, nothing could be further from the truth. If you take the opportunity to look at some of our competitors’ imprinted USB drives and merchandize you would surely notice the difference in quality, not only in the construction of the unit but also the standard of the print. It is this attention to detail and a very stringent quality assurance procedure that really separates us from our competitors and illustrates why our range of wholesale personalised USB drives are generally regarded as the connoisseurs’ choice. If you have any questions regarding our wholesale branded USB flash memory drives please do not hesitate to contact us, we pride ourselves not only on the quality of our engraved USB drives but also on our customer service.
Any enquiry directed to us whether pre-sale or post-sale will be greeted with genuine enthusiasm and a willingness to help, our customer service team are amongst the most knowledgeable in the industry and their professional acumen is the envy of our competitors. Wholesale promotional USB flash memory drives are not just our business but also our passion, we do not run this business as a sideline to our more generic interests and as a result can provide the most accurate and relevant advice in the industry. People often ask us how we can be so competitive in comparison to other suppliers, the answer is simple. Due to our business interests in the Far East and our direct links with the manufacturer we are able to secure substantial savings, we do not need to employ the services of a middle man and as a result do have to pay the associated costs, we then pass this substantial saving onto you. Supplying you with the right personalised USB flash memory drives design for your particular needs is our job satisfaction and if you can find a more comprehensive and courteous source anywhere we would be extremely surprised to hear about it. An important factor that must be noted when sourcing your wholesale customised USB drives is the quality. If you should find a dealer that is significantly cheaper than other suppliers please proceed with caution. The memory sourced for these very cheap promotional USB drives is more often than not extremely low quality, they are generally constructed of sub standard memory that does not make the grade for companies such as the USB Factory, this poor quality will usually result in a product that has a shelf life of 6 months or less and could reflect on your company negatively.
It really is not worth buying poor quality products of any description just to save a few pounds, the old adage, ‘You get what you pay for’ is as true today as it has always been and with regard to wholesale customised USB flash memory drives is excellent advice. For the best selection of customized memory sticks in the UK there is only one choice, the USB Factory. Although our company has experienced unprecedented growth within the last 2 years you will still find evidence of the personal touch when dealing with us, unlike many other firms we know the secret of our success is partly due to building strong relationships with our clients. Our clients return to us time and again for their exhibition needs and our customer base has expanded significantly due to their word of mouth recommendations. Call us today and find out for yourself why we are the favoured supplier of many corporate businesses in the UK, you may be pleasantly surprised if you are used to dealing with our competitors! Our phone lines are open from early until late or if you prefer you can e-mail us at any time.
A High Impact Event
As any experienced marketing executive will tell you there are key elements to be considered when planning or attending any exhibition, trade show or event. Aside from getting the right style of stand, ample thought and consideration must be given to the choice of promo gift. We specialise in the supply of wholesale imprinted USB drives to the trade and are the leading choice for many companies in the UK, Europe and the USA. The lead times for our customised USB drives are not just amongst the fastest in our sector, they are the fastest. Although we prefer to have a little more than 5 days advance notice we can sometimes deliver within this extremely tight timescale. Since our inception we have constantly shortened our lead times in response to urgent customer requests for custom USB flash memory drives for an event or trade show. The main reason we continue to improve our all round service is due to customer feedback, unlike many other companies we actually act upon this feedback and incorporate any suggestions into our business development plans wherever feasible. The wholesale add logo USB drives industry is an extremely competitive one so if you have any ideas of how we can improve our product lines or all round service please contact us. If you are worried that our minimum buy for branded USB drives may be too large for your particular event please think again. Our minimum amount is a mere 25 units and we have been known to provide as low as 10 in special circumstances. Our ways of working are based around the customers’ exact requirements and you can rest assured that if we can help we will. Obviously the larger the order of wholesale custom USB drives the cheaper the price is, so bearing this is mind it may be worth ordering additional numbers of wholesale promotional USB drives for future events. Whether your order is for 20 sticks or 20,000, two things will always remain static, our outstanding customer care and the fastest lead time in the industry. As a rule, lead time for wholesale engraved USB flash memory drives is slightly faster than the drives with print. We are currently investigating the options available to us that will enable us to deliver both versions within the same timescale, please check our website for the latest updates.
The price of memory fluctuates wildly as they are subject to current market conditions, so please do not be alarmed if your latest order of customised USB flash memory drives is slightly cheaper or slightly more expensive than before, we must respond to market forces accordingly but we will still endeavour to provide you with the highest quality personalized merchandize at all times. The choice of your add logo USB flash memory drives design is completely upto you, we are usually able to recreate the image of your choice onto our complete range of USB’s the only exception being if there is intricate shading in the design, we will inform you of this and present you with a series of alternative options. Our extensive range of imprinted USB flash memory drives also come in a range of styles as well as a capacities, the current best sellers being the Alu range and the Torpedo. We have approximately 10 different styles for you to choose from, the style and size may vary slightly but the price remains the same for all our models. Obviously the higher the capacity of the wholesale personalised USB flash memory drives the higher the cost. The capacity of the branded USB flash memory drives you select will probably depend upon your target audience. The majority of our clients select from 128mb to 1G branded USB flash memory drives, sizes within this range are usually suitable for most people and provide an adequate memory size for day to day use. If you are in the design or engineering field and wish to supply your attendees with something that would be suitable for their particular field of work then the 2G, 4G or 8G maybe an option worth considering. Whatever your corporate needs may be, if you require a bulk order of customised merchandise then the USB Factory should be not only your first port of call but your only port of call. Please take your time to browse our website to get yourself fully acquainted with our complete range of wholesale imprinted USB flash memory drives and if you have any questions please contact us. Our user friendly online graphic mock up service is proving to be extremely popular with a wide range of customers as it gives them the opportunity to see an exact replication of what the finished add logo USB drives design will look like. This is a free, no obligation service designed to give you the maximum amount of information before you commit to any bulk order of our merchandise. This unique obligation free service provides further insight as to why we are so highly regarded as a supplier of personalised USB drives both in the UK and the USA. The supply and advice appertaining to add logo USB flash memory drives is our forte and if any further evidence of our credentials is required, please see the testimonials section detailed on our website. These are real comments from real companies who were under absolutely no obligation to provide us with a reference, they were simply pleased with the products and the service they received whilst dealing with us. Make your exhibition meet its required objectives and get the promotional USB drives design and supply right at the first time of asking. We really are the only supplier worth knowing in the field of branded USB flash memory drives imprinting and supply, literally hundreds of customers cannot be all wrong! Call us today for the ultimate customized solution for all your exhibition needs.
Not just Exhibitions
Aside from being a valuable marketing promo tool for exhibitions and events they can also be utilised by a wide range of clients for more practical in-house needs. This real need is amply illustrated by the number of educational establishments and blue chip companies that we have as current clients. For these particular clients the performance and longevity of the sticks is just as important as the engraved USB drives design. Some of these clients have the buying power to source their merchandize from absolutely any supplier but they choose the USB Factory. We believe this is an effective indicator of the quality of the wholesale branded USB drives we supply as well as the service we provide. These companies and high end universities never settle for anything less than the best, so we are rightly proud of our association with them. Assistance with your customised USB drives design is only one of the services we provide and unlike other companies we do not charge for this service, you only pay for the personalised USB flash memory drives and a nominal delivery charge, nothing more. In addition to our client base in the UK and the USA, we are currently receiving unprecedented interest form clients as far afield as Latvia and Bulgaria and although our lead time is 5-7 days for UK mainland deliveries we are now able to deliver overseas within this time frame. Please note that your order of promotional USB flash memory drives imprinting generally leaves our factory within 3 days of receiving your order, imprinted USB drives design of a more intricate nature may take a little longer. Another thing that must be mentioned when referring to lead times outside of the UK is the customs procedure at ports of entry. If your customised USB flash memory drives imprinting order is delayed at customs for any reason the USB Factory cannot be held responsible, please ensure you check the import regulations appertaining to your own particular country prior to any engraved USB flash memory drives design considerations you may have. We state this information in plain English to ensure our valued customers know exactly what they’re getting and when they should receive it. If the requirements for your custom USB flash memory drives design are causing you some difficulty we would recommend that you speak to an expert before proceeding with your order, once your custom USB drives design has been approved and we have received payment, production begins almost immediately and there is no time left for changes to your customised USB drives imprinting.
Please check every detail of your design carefully before approving the final proof, we would rather you spend longer getting your promotional USB drives imprinting exactly right rather than receive an unsuitable order due to too much haste. Lead times are fast and provided you meet our minimum timescale there really is no need for alarm. Getting your promotional USB flash memory drives design exactly right and delivered to you on time is our main priority, so careful preparation on your part is essential. The reasons for our extremely fast lead times is our ability to contact our factory in the Far East immediately and begin production, as soon as your custom USB flash memory drives imprinting is approved by you, production begins, there really is little margin for error. We are the only trade dealer that can print or engrave your order within this very fast time frame and for this reason an attention to detail is vital. In the rare event that you receive an incorrect order please contact us soon as possible, as previously mentioned this is a very rare event but we have all the systems in place to collect the incorrect order from you and dispatch a replacement order almost immediately. If any of your order proves to be faulty we will also replace them free of charge and if necessary will ship a single unit 5000 miles in order to attain your full satisfaction. If you should require an order very, very urgently and 5 days would not hit your deadline, we are sometimes able to produce an order onsite providing engraved models are suitable. For these very short notice orders, capacity may also be an issue, we only stock a small number of each capacity onsite in the UK and subsequently are not always able to supply exactly the requested capacity. Please remember the service is for dire emergencies only and we would not recommend it as a regular alternative to our conventional ordering process. We are a rarity amongst commercial businesses today in the respect that we will pull out literally all the stops in order to secure your custom. If we have to stay in the office well into the night in order to finalise your requirements for your event or exhibition, that’s what we will do. You will not hear the all too familiar lines about being too late in the day unless it really is. The main advantage about having business interests in the Far East is the different time zone. This might appear to be a less than advantageous situation for many but for the customer it means that people are preparing their order well into the night to ensure the fastest delivery time possible. The message is clear, for a high quality job with the fastest lead time, the USB Factory are the only company you need to know. Bookmark this page now and add it to your favourites, if exhibitions and events are a focal point of your job we could be the most valuable contact in your address book. We prefer payment in advance and for your convenience can take payment by debit card, credit card or direct transfer. We also accept cheques and postal orders although this can affect lead time owing to the time it takes for funds to clear.
Quality products at affordable prices
For high quality drives combined with personalised USB flash memory drives imprinting we really are at the forefront of our particular sector. There are many firms out there who claim to be leaders in the provision of high quality promotional merchandise but in fact are not. Before you part with any money we would highly recommend that you check the credentials of your prospective supplier extremely carefully. Always contact the supplier by telephone in order to gauge their expertise and ask for some checkable customer testimonials. The internet, whilst a valuable marketing medium is open to abuse and certain unscrupulous people can build a website overnight, sell goods and then subsequently disappear. Don’t let this happen to you! If a bulk trade dealer asks you for cash in advance of submitting your customised USB flash memory drives design we would advise you to steer clear. You should only pay money when the design has been finalised and production is due to begin. Here at the USB Factory we only ask for advance payment upon a new clients’ order, subsequent orders can usually be paid for upon receipt. Delivery is made by international courier and we can actually provide you with a tracking number so you can monitor your order from the source to your address, this is particularly useful for those clients who are not based in the office at all times, using this system you can plan your week accordingly and make sure you are in the office to take receipt of your order. We cannot guarantee an exact time for delivery due to a number of factors including international weather conditions and potential road works. We can, except in the rarest circumstances, provide you with an exact date for delivery and even deliver directly to the exhibition venue if that option proves to be more convenient. Getting your dream order of imprinted USB drives imprinting has never been easier, simply go to our website, fill in a few details and attach your artwork. We will then produce a graphic mock up for you and your colleagues’ approval and provide you with a real time personalized add logo USB drives imprinting quote. If you pay using a debit or credit card we can begin production immediately and deliver your order within 5 days, not 5 working days but 5 calendar days! If you would like any part of your branded USB flash memory drives design order to be customized in a different way we can also usually perform this function. Please note there may be an additional print charge if the designs are different, for engraved USB flash memory drives imprinting there is usually no additional cost, we will inform you if there are any changes to this pricing policy. As previously mentioned please allow an additional 24 hours if your branded USB drives design is particularly intricate or requires additional personalized details, this is particularly relevant in regard to add logo USB flash memory drives imprinting. The USB Factory provides innovative imprinted USB flash memory drives design solutions for corporate customers in the USA and beyond. Call us today for the best quality personalised USB drives imprinting that money can buy.
USB Drives – Good Things Really DO Come In Small Packages
First it was the floppy disk that fell victim to the ZIP® drive, and then the ZIP gave up its throne to the CD/R.
And while the CD/R still holds a high place of honor in the realm of portable storage medium, there’s no question that the USB flash drive is the undisputed leader when it comes to portability, storage capacity and ease of use.
USB drives, also called key drives, flash drives, thumb drives, jump drives, and pen drives, first appeared in 1998. The brainchild of Dov Moran, President and CEO of M-Systems, an Israeli company known for their technological prowess in developing flash memory chips, were first distributed throughout Europe under the brand name of Disgo. They were initially available with 8 MB, 16 MB, 32 MB, and 64 MB storage capacities. Later innovations by Moran and his team enabled storage capacity to be increased to 256 MB.
Meanwhile, in the United States, computer giant IBM was busy creating their own version of the USB drive, released in 2001, with a 16 MB storage capacity. Drives with up to a 4 GB storage capacity are commonly available today.
Other companies, particularly in Asia, began creating knockoffs and pretty soon the market was flooded and prices fell quickly. Today USB drives can be had for as little as U.S. $12 with prices for even the largest capacity drives hovering under U.S. $100. Well, not the largest USB drive. That honor goes to the Kanguru 64 GB USB drive with a retail price of U.S. $630!
USB drives are available everywhere you look. Internet research giant Gartner group reported that 88.2 million USB flash drives were shipped in 2005, and they project that 115.7 million will shipped by the end of 2006.
It’s A Memory Chip With A Little Something Extra
A USB drive is actually a microcomputer in itself with the added ability to retain data when the power is removed. The typical USB drive consists of these basic components:
• A Type-A male USB connector
• An integral USB mass storage controller
• An onboard RISC microprocessor
• A small quantity of ROM and RAM
• A NAND flash memory chip for data storage
• A Crystal oscillator
Current USB drives employ USB 2.0 technology and most are backward compatible to USB 1.0 to address the needs of older computers.
While the earliest USB drives all looked pretty much the same, not unlike a stick of memory wrapped in a plastic or metal wrapper, today’s USB drives come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and colors including ballpoint pen designs, pocket knives and more. You can even buy USB drives with waterproof cases.
Some companies specialize in creating custom logo USB drives that can include the logo of a company that wants to use the devices as promotional give-aways. It is also possible to purchase private-label USB drives that make any company look like they are in the USB drive manufacturing business.
Not All USB Drives Are Equal
While the USB 2.0 specification calls for the port to be able to deliver up to 480Mbps of throughput, not all USB 2.0 drives reach that speed.
In reality, USB 2.0 supports three speeds which are 1.5Mbps (Low Speed), 12Mbps (Full Speed) and the maximum 480Mbps (Hi-Speed). If the drive is not labeled “2.0 Hi-Speed”, then it’s not running at maximum capacity.
There’s more to quality assessment than throughput speed however. The Mean Time Between Failure rate, a measurement of how long a USB drive will function before it dies, runs as high as 100,000 read-write cycles for the better quality drives, but can run as low as 25,000 for cheaper ones that use low-end components.
Read/Write speed is also an issue. The better-performing USB drive models are reporting write speed in the area of 14000 KB / sec and read speeds in the range of 25000 KB / sec. The average performance for mid-range USB drives is around 970 kilobyte per second read speed and 365 kilobytes per second for writes. Anything slower is noticeable when large files are being accessed.
The final consideration when selecting a USB flash drive is the type and speed of the memory itself. Not all flash memory is the same. That’s why it’s wise to choose brand names manufacturers over no-name imports. A faulty flash RAM chip can lose all of your data in a microsecond, and saving a large file on a flash drive with slow memory can be like watching paint dry on the side of a barn.
So, what’s everyone doing with those 115.7 million flash drives that will be shipped in 2006?
The flash drive has found its way into the pockets and onto the key chains of consumers, business people and government employees around the world.
Certainly the most common use for flash drives is to provide a solution to the age-old problem of navigating the “sneaker net”. The manual transfer of files to and from PCs, long the domain of the floppy and ZIP drive, is now the primary reason that people and organizations are buying up so many flash drive each year.
Students are particularly fond of the ease in which files can be saved and transferred between home, school and library computers. But it’s not just homework that’s eating up flash drive space these days. Teens, tweens and young adults are also using their flash drives to store photo albums, music files, e-mail and lots of things that they’d rather Mom and Dad not discover.
Businesses have hopped on the USB flash drive wagon in a big way as well. Like the students, file transfer is a big technology-driver for them but tech-savvy organizations are finding some pretty innovative uses other than sneaker-net.
• Field technicians can carry complete instruction manuals for any type of equipment on one thumb drive instead of hauling around manuals in the back of their truck.
• Small databases with up-to-date customer records, product and pricing information and other regularly-updated files fit well on flash drives.
• I.T. departments can distribute software updates and patch files via flash drives to their remote and field employees.
• Complete customized software applications can be installed and easily moved from computer to computer.
• Flash drives are also starting to be used to apply security policies, guard against spyware and keep anti-virus software current.
With the ability to make flash drives a bootable device, the uses for this technology appear almost endless.
Programmers are also embracing flash drives as excellent platforms for deploying embedded systems, and O/S manufacturers are re-engineering their software to run on these tiny drives. The most notable is a product called Puppy Linux which was built from the ground up to run on portable storage devices including ZIP and flash drives.
Utility companies are cutting labor costs, and speeding up billing cycles, by replacing their old-style analog electric meters with digital meters that can be read by a hand-held device that stores each customer’s electric usage data onto a flash drive. When the meter reader returns to the shop, the drive is plugged into a PC and all of the data is uploaded directly into the billing system.
A big hit in the specialty advertising or promotional gift items field, and especially at high-tech trade shows where a company’s reputation can be made or broken by the quality of the “toys” that they give away at their booths, promotional flash drives are making a name for themselves.
Not only are companies ordering flash drives with their logo imprinted, but many software companies are pre-loading these drives with demo copies of their software products which enable the flash drive to pull double duty as both a PR tool and a sales tool.
And with these deices being available tucked inside of pens, flashlights, pocket knives and even miniature figurines, it’s not just the geeks that are lining up to collect these goodies. Executives and decision makers are snapping up their fair share and that’s just what these publicity-seeking companies are looking for.
For those organizations that are seeking a balance between the convenience of flash drives and security, there are models that come with encryption software pre-installed that keep data safe from unauthorized eyes. And for the truly paranoid, including law enforcement, intelligence agencies, and other organizations with the highest security needs, there are flash drives available that incorporate biometric fingerprint identification technology right into the drive.
Ten years ago no one could have ever imagined that a device so convenient and so capable of multi-tasking would ever be invented. And while it is impossible to predict what technology is going to be like 10 years from now, it’s a safe bet that something pretty amazing is going to have to come along if it plans to knock the USB flash drive out of first place and send it to the museum along with floppy and ZIP drives.
But until that time comes, do your homework, check out all of the available brands and models, and get your hands on a USB flash drive. If you don’t already have one (or more), you’ll surely wonder how you ever lived without it.
Article © usbfactory 2008. May not be reproduced without permission
Also Try these beauties:
About USB -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive
About Flash Drives -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_drive
USB Flash Drives Design -
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/flash.ars
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Rock bottom pricing - we manufacture our own drives