Why large capacity flash drives remain expensive

Jan

Jan

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Why 1TB flash drives are so expensive

USB flash drives come in various capacities, ranging from 4GB to 2TB, and the larger sizes have remained pricey compared to their smaller counterparts.

In South Africa, a 1TB flash drive goes for anywhere from R2,799 to R7,449, while smaller capacities are available for a fraction of the price.
 
Enhancements to SSDs over the years have also resulted in smaller form factors, which, combined with web-based file transfer applications, have made flash drives less appealing.
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Yeah no the difference is night and day.

s-pdpxl.file
vs 1643008979658.png
 
eg2505 said:
remember when 128/256 GB was big? same thing will happen here, just need to give the market time.
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Why. There is no demand for it.
Most of the first world has high speed internet.what does anyone need such large flash storage for ?
 
WalkWithMe said:
Why. There is no demand for it.
Most of the first world has high speed internet.what does anyone need such large flash storage for ?
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emphasis on most of the world, in 3rd world sh1th0les like us and Cuba for instance, internet still isnt up to scratch.
so big flash drives and external hard drives are required.

maybe the situation will change in future, but with authoritarian regimes, not likely, to avoid revolts and uprisings.
internet is still heavily restricted in some parts of the world.
 
I have to get a new one...hopefully of our suppliers drop off one or 2 branded ones in the near future
 
@Pineapple Smurf - My usual one is 256MB, got it as a gift. I've also got 2(?) 32GBs to reinstall the OS, if needed.

However, I stopped buying them since there are better options now:
- an external HDD for backups and large files (Flash drives cannot compete on ZAR/TB); and
- the Cloud (+uncapped fibre!) for everything else (Convenient).
 
Pineapple Smurf said:
My first memory stick about 17 years ago was 256Mb
I paid R300 for it

USB 1
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I think my first was 16MB, that thing lasted till 2012 or so, got it from my dad in I think 2003 or so when company gave him a 2GB one, might have been early 2004.
I remember getting my first 512MB one, that was the beginning of CS on most school computers, 2005.

MyBB gave me a 128GB one in 2015, that was pretty nice, recently found it again after losing it for years (ended up being in a concealed pocket in my one bag, found it again when I was going through everything when emigrating). I remember asking people how much storage the flash drive has, no one ever guessed above 64GB, funny how now a 128GB is nothing special/normal and a cheap flash drive is 64GB (I was looking for a min. 16GB one recently for flashing windows that had to be USB C, 64GB price difference to 32 GB is minimal / 3 EUR).
 
eg2505 said:
emphasis on most of the world, in 3rd world sh1th0les like us and Cuba for instance, internet still isnt up to scratch.
so big flash drives and external hard drives are required.

maybe the situation will change in future, but with authoritarian regimes, not likely, to avoid revolts and uprisings.
internet is still heavily restricted in some parts of the world.
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Still doesn't create demand.
External drives exist. Doesnt answer why a USB flash is needed.
 
gregmcc said:
Apart from using a few GB USB stick to rebuild the OS on devices , does anyone still actually use them?
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Have shockingly moved over most of my workflow to the cloud, Always use hard drives as a backup though since I've had my data "deleted" from the cloud before.
 
Honestly, this Jess Raftopoulos offers the worst explanation in the history of humanity. There are only two explanations for this and the first is that he is just a figurehead with money and no tech savvy, or the second, that he lives in La-La land where most people use MO drives instead of USB drives. To test whether the **** he is talking is a fluke of nature, or pure ignorance, I fed my cat a steady diet of Italian blend coffee, plascon velvaglo, and Beeld newspapers, and even in the throes of attempting to murder me, my cat still managed to ink out a feline version of "a brief history of time", proving that his reply is pure ignorance.
 
WalkWithMe said:
Still doesn't create demand.
External drives exist. Doesnt answer why a USB flash is needed.
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A usb flash drive filled with porn is easier to hide from nosey family members. Last time I tried to shove a external hard drive up my butt, I had the rattles for days as the thing was still defragging.
 
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