silentbogo That's either a number from 10 years ago, or an overstatement.

The cheapest blank DVD on Newegg costs $1.49, while the cheapest flashdrive costs around $3.35 (2GB). $5 can actually be enough to get a decent brand-name drive 8GB stick in retail.

Also add a cost of keeping the old, loud, expensive and power-hungry DVD cloning rig and spending lots of time on writing data comparing to USB, printing company's logo on an envelope, and you've already passed the break-even point.



I'm pretty sure that an OEM bulk of 2GB drives w/ read-only lock capability can be bought for less than a buck in bulk from China, so I really like this move.

I don't remember which manufacturer it was, maybe AsRock, but one of them for a while had driver discs that if possible would go out and download the latest drivers from the internet and install those instead of using the outdated ones on the disc. Now they just need to make the driver installation software on this USB stick just as smart. When you go to use it to install drivers, it should give you the option to install all the drivers from the USB stick, or just install the network drivers from the USB stick then download all the updated drivers automatically, as well as update itself replacing the old drivers with the latest.Or even let you plug the drive into another internet connected computer, and run an update program to update the flash drive automatically.Now that is something I'd like to see.I'd believe that number is close to accurate actualy. My mother-in-law worked for Sony DADC in the disc factory up until about a year ago. The manufactured discs for all types of clients, and I believe the going rate for a manufactured DVD in a paper sleeve was something like $0.12-0.15 a piece depending on the number of colors in the label. I can also believe that a custom printed 8GB flash drive with data pre-loaded on it could cost in the neighborhood of $3 a piece.