msystems' FlashDisc for the floppy user

It's news to us, but apparently there's an untapped market of people out there who want a USB flash drive, but don't want it to be especially capacious -- or as msystems claims, they just want something with "storage density higher than floppy diskettes." msystems believes these people are apparently happy to rock 16 or 32MB; we're not entirely sure what they'd be doing with such limited amounts of memory (or why they wouldn't just lay down a couple of bucks more for a cheapie 64 / 128 / 256MB flash drive), but we definitely know marketing snake oil when we see it, and the FlashDisc, sir, is not "an exciting new category poised to radically transform the way people share their data." The FlashDisc is just a flash drive -- but relatively small, and presumably pretty cheap -- so you guys can stop talking down to consumers, because unless you're pricing this thing at the present cost of a floppy disc (about $0.25) you're about five or six years too late to be posing a flash drive as their alternative.

[Via GizMag]

Update: So according to an msystems rep, these things will come in packs of three (hence the image) for $20. Cost for 640MB CD-R: less than $1.

[Don @ Mar 16th 2006 10:00AM]

I guess their idea is that it would be priced cheap enough to hand to someone without the presumption of ever getting it back? Doesn't everyone have CD burners by now?

[Lee @ Mar 16th 2006 10:04AM]

The only sort of true niche I could see something like this filling is for company use, in the instances where data must be moved but it is deemed far too proprietary/sensitive to be shot out via email. Thus, you could write a PPT presentation to this, send via FedEx to your boss in some other city, he gives his brief, and he can reuse this small-cap USB drive for other stuff once the brief is no longer of use.

That may be a stretch, but frankly I was just trying to come up with some reason anyone would NEED an itty-bitty USB drive.
Now if they can get the cost down to dirt cheap, people may just scarf them up... maybe I'm far too optimistic...

[expungablerobot @ Mar 16th 2006 10:10AM]

The size of these stupid things means I could never use them on my laptop, even if I wanted to- unless I unplugged every other cord from my laptop. Stupid, stupid idea- and even if it works on your computer, can you be sure the one you're taking it to also has a free slot, with several inches on either side to accomodate that stupid, stupid extra heft? Decent idea- AWFUL form factor.

[jr @ Mar 16th 2006 10:21AM]

Presumming these things are priced around $5, I think it'd come in handy for emergencies. Something a university or library could have on hand for when you forgot your real flash disk at home.

[Lee @ Mar 16th 2006 10:32AM]

#3 -- Good point... aren't USB HUB ports about a millionth of an inch apart, thus making this little beasty a hog.
Maybe if they're going to make a memstick that's 16 or 32Mb, maybe make it the size of a person's thumbnail... and sell it for $5.

[sracer @ Mar 16th 2006 10:34AM]

Ryan (article submitter). It's helpful to think outside the box. If these low-capacity USB drives are cheap enough, they might be perfect for digital business cards, and other promotional stuff. 16MB may not sound like a lot of storage, but the truth is that you can fit quite a bit of low bitrate video, flash animation, ebooks, presentations, and other material easily in 16MB.

They look like they would be great to load some team photos and info for youth soccer or baseball to hand out to parents.

Schools could use these so that students can receive/submit homework assignments.

CDs are not a viable alternative to these because not everyone has a CD burner and there is some slight incompatibilities with burning formats.

Inexpensive, low capacity USB drives DO serve a purpose. IMO anyways. ;)

[badbob @ Mar 16th 2006 10:38AM]

I got excited, thinking it was some sort of flash-to-floppy adapter. Not all systems can boot to a flashdrive, or at least not without making changes to the bios, so this would be useful. Anyway, I think I've seen some ancient smartmedia-to-floppy adapters around, but I think they need drivers, which make them unbootable.

[Jesse @ Mar 16th 2006 10:42AM]

Public schools. When I was in school they would shovel floppies onto us by the truck loads. Now that floppies are going away I'm sure the teachers who would always say "remember to save your document onto your floppy" are going nuts. A cheap USB flash drive would be a god send to them.

[jv @ Mar 16th 2006 10:52AM]

Looking at today's Fry's ad, a 128MB USB drive is currently going for $6.99 out the door.

These better be priced damn well if they hope of making any sales.

[iptydafu @ Mar 16th 2006 11:04AM]

Ryan Block's on fire today!

[zoara @ Mar 16th 2006 11:08AM]

I think the advantage of floppies was they they were dirt cheap, and relatively rugged. You could give them to a friend who could chuck it on the back seat of his car before using it, then throwing it away.

Flash drives are rugged (even more so than floppies ever were) but would you just regularly hand them over to a friend or colleague?

CDs are cheap enough to hand out and not expect back, but they scratch easily. And they're either write-once, or unreliable (I have never trusted CDRW).

And email is fine, but not for more than a couple of megabytes.

I think that there *is* a niche for a dirt-cheap non-scratching medium. But it has to be really cheap (like the $0.25 that Ryan mentions) and have at least the capacity that these have.

And the niche probably won't last long, as broadband becomes ubiquitous and faster - but we really need a better way of sharing files than email (and no, online sharing services don't cut it - too complex for the non-geek).

[Hard Nard @ Mar 16th 2006 11:18AM]

I saw these advertised this past weekend at Staples (I think). Three pack was $19.95.

[Wayne @ Mar 16th 2006 11:30AM]

I've been thinking of getting the bubble pack of three 64MB drives from Target or wherever I saw them - I don't want to keep passing out my 'main' drive because 1) it's on my keychain!, and 2) there's a lot of other stuff on it that makes it hard for someone else to ID what they're looking for. So the idea of having a few community flash drives around is appealing, especially here where different contractor groups aren't all in equivalent network environments.

[DJCodeRed @ Mar 16th 2006 1:55PM]

Will be great for ppl to pass out PPT's to teachers as I donot have a floppy drive and CDS just scartch too easily, get spoilt, by the time he grades it.

[tiuk @ Mar 16th 2006 2:01PM]

I agree with the "awful formfactor" post. What the bloody hell were they thinking? I've seen 2 GB flash drives that are only about an inch long and half an inch wide (approximately), why in god's name would they make these things so big if they have such a small capacity? Huge, huge mistake.

As for floppy's being rugged, true they don't scratch like CDs, but I've seen them get killed by simple things like being dropped on the ground.

[Sarah @ Mar 16th 2006 2:15PM]

Hmm...this is for people who tend to lose small things...or would want to make a colorful necklace.

[Lee Gibson @ Mar 16th 2006 2:47PM]

Why is it humongous?

[raindog @ Mar 16th 2006 4:12PM]

There really are people out there who are still using PC's with no CD burner.

The problem is, those same people's computers are most often old enough that USB storage won't work either. Like my stepdad's circa-1999 Windows 98 Gateway box, which would lock up solid whenever I plugged any usb-storage device into it. (And his even had a burner, but only because I bought one for him after discovering that.)

[fazz @ Apr 8th 2006 4:49PM]

They need to make them cheaper and smaller. A true floppy replacement should be quite small very cheap, ie $0.25 each and easily distributable, ie you can give it away. It's a great idea I get very iritated having to burn cd's for fairly small internet or word files. Contrary to popular belief bigger isn't always better and people do still distribute small files.