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Sustainability of pen drive in Bangladesh

Acknowledgement

As pert the requirement of the course, advanced composition (ENG 105) students were to

submit a research paper. This research gave me a breakthrough to know about the reality

of Bangladesh regarding the “Sustainability of pen drives in Bangladesh” which is my

topic.

First of all, I would like to express the deepest gratitude to my honorable faculty;

Michelle Draper (McD), for her valuable contributions. Without her contribution it was

impossible for me to work on this challenging paper and complete this research on time.

Her painstaking effort at importing her students with the necessary skills and expertise

goes far beyond her responsibilities as a teacher, and I am very grateful to her.

To complete this research I had to work alone, as it was an individual work and I tried my

best to give my best effort in it. So, I want to thank everyone who were involved in this

research; the whole Bangladeshi university students.

Above all, I am very grateful to our Almighty Allah, without Him, I could not have start

and finish this research.

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Abstract

The research is about “sustainability of pen drive in Bangladesh”. In Bangladesh,

numbers of pen drive users are vast and day by day are increasing. In this research, the

current scenario toward the consumption of pen drive is shown. Although, the current

situation suggest that the demand for pen drives are stable in Bangladesh. But, this can

change due to much advanced technologies, which are being implemented in the market.

There are alternatives already in the market. But, for the students in Bangladesh pen

drives wins the race. Moreover, the prices of the pen drives are much feasible towards

any other alternatives. But, if the any other alternatives give better services at the same

rate, the market for pen drive will diminish. So, it is very likely to say that in short run the

demand for pen drives are huge but in the long run it is quite unsafe.

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Table of content

1. Introduction……………………..……………5

2. Background……………………..…………....6

3. Areas of research………………….………….7

4. Hypothesis……………………...…………….8

5. Methodology…………………………………8

6. Primary source data………………….……….9

7. Secondary source data…………………..…..16

8. Limitation…………………………………...18

9. Conclusion…………………………………..18

10. References…………………...………….19

11. Appendix………………….………….…20

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Introduction

“Sustainability of Pen drive” is a topic that notifies the importance of pen drive in our life

currently. Technologies have vastly improved and now instead of storing data on a

computer, it can easily be moved without any paper works. This also means new

technologies are being implemented for much convenient and adequate lifestyle. This has

become such an everyday commodity for computer users, that now a days in some

country, pen drives are given as free gifts with cereal boxes or so. As a matter of fact pen

drives can now run even a whole operating system for a computer.

A pen drive is a small external storage device that reads and writes to pen memory, a

solid-state storage medium that's both cheap and durable. Typical pen drive is the size of

an adult's thumb, it is not uncommon to hear of these all in one device as "thumb drives".

Due to their portable nature and near-universal compatibility, pen drives have largely

replaced the floppy diskette as everyone's favorite method for transferring files between

multiple computers without the use of a network.

Most if not all pen drives sold today are equipped with a male "A"-type USB plug for

connecting to just about every computer sold since 1998, hence the industry term USB

pen drive (UFD). At least two companies were crazy enough to have offered alternatives

with FireWire and eSATA/USB combo interfaces, though have largely been taken out

leaving USB the victor.

Although the competition is higher, in terms of sales for pen drives. But, if technologies

advance rapidly enough, the sales and demand for pen drives could be in a fragile

situation.

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Background

A USB pen drive consists of a pen memory data storage device integrated with a USB

(Universal Serial Bus) 1.1, 2.0 or 3.0 interfaces. USB pen drives are typically removable

and rewritable, and physically much smaller than a floppy disk. Most weigh less than

30 g. Storage capacities in 2010 can be as large as 256 GB with steady improvements in

size and price per capacity expected. Some allow 1 million write or erase cycles and

have a 10-year data retention cycle.

USB pen drives are often used for the same purposes as floppy disks were. They are

smaller, faster, have thousands of times more capacity, and are more durable and

reliable because of their lack of moving parts. Until approximately 2005, most desktop

and laptop computers were supplied with floppy disk drives, but most recent equipment

has abandoned floppy disk drives in favor of USB ports.

Pen drives use the USB mass storage standard, supported natively by modern operating

systems such as Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and other Unix-like systems. USB drives with

USB 2.0 support can store more data and transfer faster than a much larger optical disc

drive and can be read by most other systems such as the PlayStation 3.

Nothing moves mechanically in a pen drive; the term drive persists because computers

read and write pen-drive data using the same system commands as for a mechanical

disk drive, with the storage appearing to the computer operating system and user

interface as just another drive. Pen drives are very robust mechanically.

A pen drive consists of a small printed circuit board carrying the circuit elements and a

USB connector, insulated electrically and protected inside a plastic, metal, or rubberized

case which can be carried in a pocket or on a key chain, for example. The USB connector

may be protected by a removable cap or by retracting into the body of the drive,

although it is not likely to be damaged if unprotected. Most pen drives use a standard

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type-A USB connection allowing plugging into a port on a personal computer, but drives

for other interfaces also exist.

Most USB pen drives draw their power from the USB connection, and do not require a

battery. Some devices that combine the functionality of a digital audio player with pen

drive type storage require a battery for the player function.

Areas of Research

Pen drives are multiple storage facility devices to save and carry data for computer. It is

thousand times more sophisticated and advanced than a traditional floppy disk. In

Bangladesh most of the students are depended on its services. Although, there are other

alternatives to this device, which is gaining more competitive advantage day by day. One

of the major alternatives is External hard disk drive. This device plays the same role in

terms of services but, better in terms of memory and speed. Although, the pricing of the

pen drives are reasonable rather than an External hard disk. But, if the prices of the

External hard disk fall, there can be serious competition for the services of pen drives.

Nevertheless, Pen drives are still popular in Bangladesh and may remain popular until

better and feasible alternatives are available.

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Hypothesis

In the research, I would expect a survey of the dependability of pen drives among the

Bangladeshi students. I also expect the usage of pen drives will decrease. Therefore, I

would find out the current situation of pen drives among the Bangladeshi students. I

expect there will be better demand for any other alternatives of pen drives.

Methodology

In this research of “sustainability of pen drives in Bangladesh”, there were two parts of

the research that was conducted to understand the present situations and gain valuable

information; those are the Primary and Secondary research. The primary research was

done with the help of the students, who are currently studying in different universities

within Dhaka city, Bangladesh. Mainly the main users of pen drives are students, so this

survey was done within their authority. The secondary research was done with the help of

the World Wide Web. With these sources the research was eligible to understand the

current situation beyond boundaries of Dhaka city and globally.

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Primary Source Data1. Who are the main consumers of pen drive?

Students and Of-ficial workers

Students and Home users

Official Workers and Home users

All of them0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Percent %

Both the male and female users of the pen drive agreed to this statement that

students are the most important customers. But there is split between the sects of

users in this segment. Half of them think that only students and official workers

are the only the pen drive subscribers. But in fact, half the amount of people in

this survey actually thinks all students, official workers and home users hold the

usage of the pen drive for their perspective works.

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2. Are people depended on pen drive?

Yes No Sometimes0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Percentage % of people

According to this survey, most of the people said the compatibility and ample use

of pen drive are so high that more than fifty percent of the people agreed that

people are depended on pen drive. This is because most of them might not have

been able to test any other alternatives properly. This is because of the “plug and

play” option in every compatible devices with pen drive. This option means that

the pen dives can easily stick to anything and can be used freely at any time and at

anywhere. But, keeping in fact with the percentage, more than thirty five percent

of the people agreed to non dependency of pen drives. And the rest agreed to the

need of pen drives are not all the time.

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3. Is the demand for pen drive decreasing?

Percentage of people

YesNo

Most of the people found this question irrelevant. Because as the graph shows

most of the people are concerned about the usage of the product, not the

descending growth rate of the product. And therefore most of the people said

“no”. But, there were some exceptional cases too. Some believe the era of pen

drive is coming to an end because of the vast changes in technologies.

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4. What does the customer want in a pen drive?

DurabiltyMore

memory Speed file transfering Others

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

People percentage

According to the customers of pen drive, there is and will be always a need. Customers

want their product to be more beneficial to them. Some sixty percent of the people in this

chart show that customer wants more memory storage of data in their pen drives. Twenty

percent of the people want durability. Five percent wants more speed file transfer in their

pen drives. However, there are some other concerns. Ten percent of the people want

designs or sum of two categories mentioned before such as more memory and durability.

This puts an affect on the pricing of the product.

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5. How much are the customers willing to pay for a pen drive?

Hundreds Thousands It does not matter0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Percentage

Prices are always a matter for the users or the customer of pen drive. This graph

shows how many people are willing to spend in Taka; hundreds, thousand and no

limits. Some people prefer the usage and importance of this product, so price

never becomes a factor for them. And according to this survey more people are

willing to pay any amount of money comparing to the people willing to pay

thousands for the product which conducts actual price. People always want to pay

less, that is why the stakes of the hundreds are higher than the rest.

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6. What would people choose “pen drive” or “portable hard drive”?

Pen drive Portable hard drive Both None0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Percentage

People are interested in more efficient and effective ways to use any computer

related accessories. However, the product here chosen with forty five percent

usages are the portable hard disk drive. Mainly this indicates the need for pen

drive is low comparing to the use of portable hard disk drive. In other context, pen

dive and portable hard disk drive were the same as the demands for pen drive

only. This means students in Bangladesh have interest in both of the products.

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7. If prices of both “Pen drive” and “Portable hard drive” were same, which one people will

buy?

Pen drive Portable hard drive

Both None0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Percentage

Pricing is a big factor in terms of sales of pen drive. The graph shows the given

percentage of people, who will purchase Pen drive or Portable hard drive in terms

of same pricing. Seventy percent of the people will purchase the Portable hard

drives whereas twenty five percent of the people will buy pen drives. However,

some people will be happy to buy both of the products in order to be satisfied with

both. This sort differentiation occurred because the pricing of the products, people

are getting more powerful and with more memory devices (Portable hard drive) in

respect to pen drives.

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Secondary Source Data

The sources that had been obtained from the World Wide Web indicate several reasons

how the popularity of pen drives has easily changed from the traditional floppy disk.

Mostly the size of the same centered devices sizes. And by size does not mean the shape

it also means the memory. Traditional floppy drives prove very sloppy towards the

modern age pen drives in terms of efficiency, memory and durability. Floppy disk drives

are rarely fitted to modern computers and are obsolete for normal purposes, although

internal and external drives can be fitted if required. Floppy disks may be the method of

choice for transferring data to and from very old computers without USB or booting from

floppy disks, and so they are sometimes used to change the firmware on, for example,

BIOS chips. Devices with removable storage like older Yamaha music keyboards are also

dependent on floppy disks, which require computers to process them. Newer devices are

built with USB flash drive support.

Then there is the use of External hard disk drive, more memory and faster way to store

data rather than the traditional pen drives. An external hard disk drive is a type of hard

disk drive which is connected to a computer by a USB cable or other means. Modern

entries into the market consist of standard SATA, IDE, or SCSI hard drives in portable

disk enclosures with SCSI, USB, IEEE 1394 Firewire, eSATA client interfaces to

connect to the host computer. This device ensures more safety than any other portable

devices. The most wonderful part about this technology is its pricing. Comparing to the

prices of the pen drive, the prices of these hard disks are slightly higher but with grater

quality. This has an important drawback comparing to the pen drives, which is, it might

not shock proof. Too much hassle could damage the systems within this computer

component. Another problem is the size of the device comparing to pen drives. The size

of a normal hard disk is normally ten times bigger than any pen drive. But, this can also

be carried easily anywhere at any time. Manufacturers are still trying to sort out problems

regarding this device. Once solved this is a flawless computer gadget.

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Solid state is an electrical term that refers to electronic circuitry that is built entirely out

of semiconductors. The term was originally used to define those electronics such as a

transistor radio that used semiconductors rather than vacuum tubes in its construction.

Most all electronics that we have today are built around semiconductors and chips. In

terms of a SSD, it refers to the fact that the primary storage medium is through

semiconductors rather than a magnetic media such as a hard drive. An SSD on the outside

looks almost no different than a traditional hard drive. This design is to allow the SSD

drive to put in a notebook or desktop computer in place of a hard drive. To do this, it

needs to have the standard dimension as a 1.8, 2.5 or 3.5-inch hard drive. It also will use

either the ATA or SATA drive interfaces so that there is a compatible interface. This

storage conductor is expensive and is much reliable than any pen drives in the world.

There is another alternative, the device has not even hit the market yet and as the

manufactures and expert says this is the next generation of pen drive family. The device

is so tiny that anyone can hold it with the index finger. This technology is called as the

nano chip technology. Nanochip, and promises gains in storage quantity and cost per chip

over flash memory. The first prototypes will store 100GB, and will be shipped to device

makers next year for evaluation. Nanochip technology stores data on a thin-film material,

and accesses it using microscopic cantilevers. Each bit will be 15 nanometers wide at

first, with theoretical sizes as small as a couple nanometers. Speeds will be near that of

flash, and the data could last longer. There are still some obstacles to accessing the data

efficiently, but luckily Nanochip just scored $14 million in funding to complete its

pursuit.

All of the technologies mentioned show the perfect alternative for any pen/flash drive in

the world. Although, the market has been saturated by pen drives but, it might be

vulnerable for the next generation to sustain the need of pen drives.

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Limitations

The project that had been done describes the sustainability of the pen drive. This is a

much narrower topic and is very hard to find. There are some problems that could have

been easily sought out, if there were enough time frames. If there was more time for the

secondary survey could be easily done with the expertise opinions with the help of those

people, who are related to this matter. There are some other information that could be

obtained about the current situation, if any links regarding this topic were specifically

given on the world wide web.

Conclusion

The research for this proposal indicates that the need for pen drive is still on the verge. As

the technology advances, the need of customer will grow even more. Therefore, it can be

said that the sustainability of pen drive in Bangladesh is at risk. If any other alternative

hits the market with better features and same pricing, the future of pen drives will perish.

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References

Bullis K. (February 12, 2008). Higher-Capacity Memory: A new type of memory could

soon be available to. Retrieved in July 24, 2010 from device makers

http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/20192/?a=f

Burleson Consulting. (September 26, 2007). New flash drive disks for Oracle. Retrieved

in July 24, 2010 from http://compreviews.about.com/od/storage/a/SSD.htm

Clark R.S. (March 19th, 2010). USB Flash Drive FAQ. Retrieved in July 24, 2010 from

http://www.everythingusb.com/flash-drives.html

Hardy T. & Sapper R. (31 May, 2010). Compact flash boot drive. Retrieved in July 24,

2010 from http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/compact_Flas_boot_drive

Miller P. (Feb 12th 2008). Nanochip technology offers up cheap, 100GB flash memory

alternative. Retrieved in July 24, 2010 from

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/12/nanochip-technology-offers-up-cheap-

100gb-flash-memory-alternat/

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. External hard disk drive, . Retrieved in July 24, 2010

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/External_hard_disk_drive

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. USB flash drive. Retrieved in July 24, 2010 from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive

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Appendix

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