Technology has accomplished amazing things that weren’t even thought of a mere decade ago. Two of the greatest advances, at least in the area of data storage, have been DVDs and flash drives. As is the case with any two competing technologies, however (remember 8-track versus cassette tapes?), one will eventually fall by the wayside. Unfortunately for DVD manufacturers, it seems as if there are numerous reasons that flash drives will win this war. From college students to business owners, people just seem to benefit much more from the use of flash drives.
Flash Drives are Heavy Duty
There’s no arguing the robustness of a flash drive when compared to a DVD. Flash drives cannot be destroyed by a simple scratch like DVDs can. Additionally, the outer shell of the drive can be manufactured from several reliable materials such as hard plastic, rubber or even wood.
On top of it all, DVDs have that all too familiar rainbow dye layer that can fade away and become unreadable. For those who use data storage devices to market their products, a flash drive will create a sustainable advertisement.
DVDs Will Soon Meet the Dinosaurs
There’s no doubt that there are still many people out there who refuse to recognize that DVDs are becoming obsolete, but this doesn’t make that fact any less true. In fact, optical drives in general are losing favor, so this means both CDs and DVDs will soon be relics.
One only needs to look at Apple’s new MacBook Pro; it doesn’t even have an optical drive. For those who think that this doesn’t mean anything, they should just remember this: Apple got rid of the floppy drive long before anyone else. Now, how often are floppy discs seen today?
Strengthening of a Brand
Though the common layperson won’t worry too much about what their drive looks like, a marketer can greatly strengthen their brand by choosing flash drives over DVDs. With a DVD, there’s only so much customization that can take place, and this is usually with the case that holds the disc. Unfortunately, this case is usually the first thing that a person will lose or throw away in lieu of using a DVD storage case. Marketers, however, don’t have to worry about this with custom flash drive packaging.
Businesses can have custom colors applied and even logos engraved onto the flash drives they’re using for marketing purchases. There’s no chance that clients and potential customers will lose or throw away the casing of a flash drive; unless, of course, they throw away the whole drive. From special printing to custom designs, flash drives can do wonders for a brand image.
Additional Space
Whether an individual is a student, teacher, marketer or just someone who enjoys carrying their data around with them, they will have much more space on a flash drive. Common DVD formats usually have less than five gigabytes of data storage. Flash drives, on the other hand, can go well over 100 gigabytes of storage. In a world where compactness is important, there’s no doubt that this feature easily puts flash drives above DVDs.
It’s sometimes sad to see one technology fade into the shadow of another. Honestly, everyone can get a little nostalgic thinking about their old Walkman cassette player, but there’s no way that they’d give up their iPod for it. The simple fact is that flash drives outperform DVDs in an abundance of ways, and people from marketing experts to college professors will be left in the dark if they don’t make the move to flash drives soon. Luckily, there is still time; just not much.
