What do you look for in a USB Thumb Drive? I have an opportunity to design a usb thumb drive around an 8GB ultra small microdrive. The drive itself only measures 40mm x 30mm x 4mm. I've been asked to design around it, taking into account for style, dimensions, materials, and ease of use as well as being reliable.

I for one am not a fan of the regular usb drives with end caps that can be easily lost. So.. i'm asking what you guys would like to see in a thumb drive if you were to buy one? what material it should be made out of? what functions you want to see on it? would you like a swivel out usb plug?

anyways.. here's what the bare drive looks like next to my keys and my usb keychain.

whats your budget? i think a simple chrome case would look nice, but could be quite pricey

Or mabey follow in the porsche CGT footsteps, and make it outta beachwood. Might not be the strongest material but it would look good/original.

Also you could intergrate a swivel system into the design. like mentioned above, but so its like the citreon (and im sure other marques) keys.

like this:

make it look like a small weapon. or better yet, a small explosive. then mail me a prototype.

make it look like a thumb.

Or make it out of Carbon fiber.

yay! half an hours work.

hehehehe.. sweet! i'd swallow that!

What else would you swallow?
Make it look like a White Castle Cheese burger.
Lighter?
Bubble Gum!
Dude, the bubble gum would be soooooo friggin cool. Do that.

My thumbdrive swivels an inside piece out, make a bubble gum container that does that.

Carbon rocks
Yeah the usb thing is totaly out of perspective, but you should get the idea.

Think in terms of the ipod.. rounded edges, heavy/sturdy feel, glossy finish. Make it as small as possible so people think "Damn.. 8 gigs out of this little thing?"

Muhaha =)
i got my hand creative muvo tx fm
I like the usb drive that LG made

PEZ DISPENSER.

yes like leif previously said, the swivel pop out idea. and make it out of carbon fiber.

I'd go with like machined billet aluminum. It would last almost forever, look cool, and it could look like a weapon, ie a zippo!

A thumb drive that looks like a Zippo, now that's an idea.



Diesel...where'd you get that cool ass usb key chain thingy...

a thumb drive that looks like a pornstar. sales guaranteed.

Fixed

a friend of mine in Taiwan got it for me. It's from a company called ePraizer http://www.epraizer.com/

The more I think about it, the more i like the "switch balde key" ideal, like Audi and VW have...

Aww shit, I was hoping they had an online store. I've lost both my 1gb and my 256mb thumb drives, and yours was pretty damned slick...

I agree in that it has to be uniquely different and special in some way to attract sales of the multitude of other brand USB thumb drives nowadays.

make it a cigar cutter too.

just leave it exactly the way it is and slap a USB connector on it

make is rectangle, and then have the usb flip off the top of it, you'd have to use one of those weird super small usb plugs like the sandisk sd cards, and put a thin cover over it, that way it's not much thicker or bigger than the microdrive, although you'd have to find a way to make it stronger, because i doubt the sandisk one could support the weight of the microdrive

If you make it like the zippo you should be able to pull the electronic part out of the metal case and be able to change cards. Like how you refill an ordinary zippo.