As you can see there are Thousands and thousands of different shapes of promotional USB Drives, but if you have a look on the “inside”, in fact this market is oligopolistic controlled by only a few companies.
USB Chips promotional market is mainly controlled by 5 companies: SAMSUNG, TOSHIBA, INTEL, MICRON and HYNIX. The 5 mentioned companies are controlling more than 90% of the market. In term of quality, SAMSUNG has the best reputation.
The prices are decided by these companies according to market demand. USB Chips prices are moving almost every day according to offer and demand. Demand is mainly moving according to major players using Chips (Electronic and over all Computer and Mobile Phones makers).
Most of promotional USB drives are produced and assembled in China (Shenzhen area) however the Chips are imported from overseas. The perfect example showing on how this market is dependant is the Fukushima tsunami in 2011, after this event, prices have jumped more than 50% in 1 day since Toshiba production lines have been highly affected.
As a conclusion, maybe you have the feeling to deal with many players (which are just assembling), at the end you are only buying from one of the 5 companies!!
Stay tuned folks!
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