Custom designs and larger memory sizes top sales and output.

TOP TRENDS

• Custom designs: Novelty shapes and motifs are the best-sellers as they attract greater attention. Custom designs such as movie themes remain popular. Molds for these require less than $500 to make if metal or soft PVC is used, widening profit margins. Atypical 6cm-long PVC molds cost about $200. Swivel structures, however, still remain strong.
• Larger storage capacity: New models can exceed 64GB, but the popular sizes are 4, 8, 16 and 32GB. The last two variants are predicted to breach the mainstream in the next half-year. The memory size depends on the supply of NAND flash memory. Compared with 32MB versions, 2GB units have lower prices because the modules are readily available.
• USB 2.0 prevalent: Although many anticipated USB 3.0 to become dominant in the promotional USB flash drives line, USB 2.0 remains widely used. This slow conversion is due to the high cost of the newer connection type.
• Soft PVC dominates: Soft PVC will continue to be the material of choice for coming years. More than 70 percent of China’s output in the sector is made of this plastic, which is the easiest and least costly to process.

Product gallery Cesvis Group Ltd Model: MP-1 Description: Plastic housing; card type; silk-screening, offset printing; 85x55x3mm

Global Design Technology Co. Ltd Model: PVC-125 Description: PVC or rubber housing; plug-and-play; embossing, pressing, silk-screening; various storage capacity

Shenzhen Sea-stars Electronics Co. Ltd Model: U015A Description: Plastic housing; custom storage capacity; optional auto-run function; silk-screening

Shenzhen Vidia Technology Co. Ltd Model: PVC-031 Description: PVC housing; novelty shape; silk-screening; 60x30.4x9mm; CE, RoHS

Shenzhen Zhenglixing Technology Co. Ltd Model: ZLX-1577 Description: Metal housing; key shape; silk-screening, laser engraving; 5.7x2.4x0.3cm; CE, RoHS, FCC

Unesky Electronic Co. Ltd Model: EF-L012 Description: Leather housing; silk-screening, embossing; 88x33x13mm

Note: This article "Promotional USB flash drives with diverse designs, large capacity key trends" was originally published by Global Sources, a leading business-to-business media company and a primary facilitator of trade with China manufacturers and India suppliers, providing essential sourcing information to volume buyers through our e-magazines, trade shows and industry research.

All price quotes in this report are in US dollars unless otherwise specified. FOB prices were provided by the companies interviewed only as reference prices at the time of interview and may have changed.

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