A timeline of flash drives

Flash drives, also known as USB drives, were first introduced in 1998 by IBM and Trek Technology, marking a significant advancement in portable data storage. In the early 2000s, flash drive capacities began to increase rapidly, with early models offering just a few megabytes, while modern drives now hold terabytes of data. The USB 2.0 standard, released in 2000, greatly improved data transfer speeds, followed by USB 3.0 in 2008, which further enhanced performance. Today, flash drives are widely used for data storage, transfer, and backup, benefiting from ongoing advancements in technology and design.