In-Stat says laptops to "superspeed" desktops

In-Stat released a report that bets that SuperSpeed USB(USB 3.0) will become the norm in laptops and mobile systems by 2014. 97% of the mobile systems today are high-speed USB (USB 2.0). In-Stat also indicates that USB 3.0 on the desktop will not see such a high speed transition.

Key findings made by In-Stat include:

High-speed USB is expected to peak in 2011 at 2.9 billion units then decrease slowly over the remainder of the forecast as SuperSpeed gains traction.
USB penetration of the LCD monitor market will see a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 107.5% from 2009 to 2014.
225 million SuperSpeed USB flash drives will ship in 2014.
SuperSpeed will sweep through the USB-enabled hard drive market by 2013.
From 2009 to 2014, the average selling price of SuperSpeed USB discrete peripheral controllers will experience a -21.8% CAGR.

What’s driving this transition according to In-Stat is that notebooks getting slimmer, lighter, and having longer battery life means they have began eliminating the need for optical drives, and high capacity hard drives. Instead, storage will be predominantly external, thus requiring high capacity SuperSpeed USB drives to augment a lack of internal storage.

So why continue to develop high speed, high capacity 2.5 inch hard drives? To put into external enclosures of course. But what about technology like Hybrid found in the new Momentus XT drives? Performance is the key element of this product. Where does it play come 2014 given In-Stat’s findings?

Well, 2014 is 4 years away, and the need for high performance storage for the laptop is a need today. Plus, there will remain a segment of the market that demands capacity and performance in the system. What about all those desktop users that are alive and well and will be for the fore-seeable future. When they make (or have made, like myself) the transition to a laptop, they undoubtedly will preserve their preference for storage speed and capacity. The 100% mobile lifestyle is not for everyone.