GoKawiilThe real trick happened inside those memory chips. For decades, NAND manufacturers have found ways to make memory cells smaller, cram multiple bits into each one and eventually stack those cells vertically with 3D NAND. That lets them pack far more into a flash drive without making the thing so large that you'd need a backpack to carry it.
One neat example came in 2005, when Toshiba and SanDisk announced an 8Gb (gigabit) NAND chip capable of storing 1GB on a single chip. It was less than 5 percent larger than the companies' previous-generation 4Gb part but offered twice the capacity. In the announcement, the companies said it would become the "production workhorse ... bringing significant cost reductions" to the companies' flash storage products.
The numbers escalated quickly, with a 2.1GB Verbatim Store 'n Go priced at $250 in 2004. By 2013, Kingston had unveiled a 1TB DataTraveler, while the already available 512GB version cost a fairly brutal $1,750. TLC NAND squeezes three bits into each memory cell and is commonly used in cost-sensitive consumer storage like USB drives. Capacity and speed have both climbed, but larger does not automatically mean faster. The NAND matters, as do the controller and USB interface.