The quest for the biggest and fastest in technology is a constant pursuit and finding the largest USB flash drive on the market is no exception.  The last time we discussed the topic was back in 2010, when Kingston impressed consumers with the 256GB DataTraveler 310.  As today’s products prove, that title crown was a fleeting reign of power.  The data capacity available to consumers has grown significantly in a span well under two years to 1 terabyte (TB)!

The new data capacity champ is from a company we saw at CES—Victorinox.  Their USB 2.0/eSATA II flash drive boasts 1 terabyte (thanks to the ever-improving efforts and innovations of nanotechnology) and is priced at a hefty three grand.  While not quite friendly enough for the average consumer, businesses and institutions could actually fill out these flash drives with a significant amount of data that would warrant such a purchase.

To put a terabyte into a perspective that you can wrap your head around, it is the equivalent of more than 2,000 hours of audio or more than 3 million images.  It is also the equivalent to 1,000 copies of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

You can be guaranteed that the world’s biggest USB flash drive won’t stop with just a terabyte.  Over the past several months, there has been significant online buzz that Transcend will eventually come out with a 2TB USB flash drive called the Thin Card.  We’ve watched the YouTube videos teasing such a device, but we have yet to see it on the market or put to the test.

As these data capacities grow, we do believe it is important that they implement USB 3.0 technology so that the device and your host computer can properly handle such large transfers while allowing you to work in other applications.

Even if you can’t afford the enormous price tag of a 1 terabyte thumb drive, it will invariably affect the way you use these kinds of devices.  Scientists are already touting the fact that the larger capacities and smaller nanotechnology will be more energy and cost efficient to produce.

As a result, that 16GB, 32GB or 64GB you have been lusting after will become more affordable and such capacities will become the norm for flash drives.  For your promotional needs, that means you can provide more multimedia and other digital data to your target audience on larger custom USB drives.

What are your thoughts on the world’s largest USB flash drives?  Are they necessary or are they overkill?