Innovation continues unabated in the USB flash memory market with the introduction by Buffalo of Disney character products. The four USB flash memory products feature "Mickey Mouse", "Winnie the Pooh", "Tinker Bell" and "Marie" (from "The Aristocats"). In this article, Buffalo also talks about their future plans for the USB flash memory market.

Buffalo will begin sales of four "Disney Flash Memory" products, which are USB.20 flash memory decorated with Disney characters, from late November. There will be no set retail price. Supported operating systems are Windows 98/Me/2000/XP, Mac OS 9.0-9.2.2 and Mac OSX 10.1-10.3.

The four USB flash memory products feature "Mickey Mouse", "Winnie the Pooh", "Tinker Bell" and "Marie" (from "The Aristocats"). They are the first character-based products from Buffalo. A character-shaped key chain is also included with each product.

Each character USB flash memory will be available in 128MB and 256MB capacities, with street prices expected to be 4000 yen and 5000 yen respectively.

The flash memory has dimensions of W77.6 x D31.1 x H12.7 mm and weighs 19 grams. An illustrated 30 cm USB extension cable is also included.

Until now, Buffalo has had a strong presence among business and enthusiast users but their products have not appealed to young and female users, due to a stuffy image. Starting with these new character products, Buffalo hopes to expand their customer base to new types of users.

"Originally, Buffalo was mainly a supplier of peripherals like memory and HDDs for desktop computers but , in recent years, with the miniaturisation of PCs, the number of products with internal storage has become limited and we now deal with a lot of external USB storage products," stated Hidetoshi Yamaguchi, Buffalo company director.

Masaru Asegami(?), PC component business unit marketing director added, "During 2002-2003, the market grew by 570% and non-office use has become more widespread. Even though things have slowed down this year, we've still seen 156% market growth, yet there are still a lot of customers who aren't aware of USB flash memory products."

In the future, users will probably own multiple USB flash memory products and their use in business and private situations will increase. Therefore, Buffalo's opinion is that there is still a lot of demand for USB flash memory products.

From now, a "ballpen-like market formation" will expand, USB flash memory will become an everyday item like stationery and fashionable products will also become more popular. "Buffalo, with a 40% share of the USB flash memory market, is an industry leader and we want to continue to create new markets," said Mr Asegami.

As for the reasons for taking the steps towards a tie-up with Disney, "they have a very strong world-wide presence and are very popular in the undeveloped market of all-age female users," said Masanori Nakajima, group leader of Buffalo's Flash Solutions marketing division. "It's our first entry into the character business but Disney is a stable and experienced copyright holder so we were able to commercialise the products with complete confidence," he added.

There were also questions about sales channels, to which Buffalo replied, "As with previous products, sales will be conducted via large volume retailers. In the future, we may consider various distribution channels such as female-targeted gift shops but we will look at the timing as we go."

Inspired by:
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2004/1104/buffalo.htm

News release:
http://buffalo.melcoinc.co.jp/products/new/2004/056_1.html