I wonder if it really even costs them near that 1100 to make.
I have no doubt it would come close. The yield of those memory chips must be low, and because their densities are
so huge, the cost would likewise be high. Look at 4GB DRAM modules compared to 2GB. The prices exponentially go up as you cram more storage into the same space. I am giving a simple explanation of it, but that's the basics.
How about a device that lets you stripe thumb drives?
If I have stripped in front of a thumb drive before, is that the same thing?
I am wondering though, what are the pros / cons to doing a thumb drive over a small enclosure and using a 2.5 drive? I know one is smaller of course but the size of an exclosure is maybe the size of a wallet? maybe a small paper back book? A reader's digest?
Given the price, getting an external enclosure or dock like Psi* said makes far, far more sense. For $1,100, you could pick up a nice 256GB SSD for around $500 and chuck it in an external enclosure. The bonus is that it would be a lot faster, even through USB (those chips in the 256GB thumb drive have got to be a lot slower than chips in smaller drives).
Personally, I'd just get 2.5" mechanical drive, at around $500 for $150 or whatever they are, get an external enclosure, and lug that around. Sure, you have to be more careful with mechanical drives, but I can't begin to recall how many times I've broken a thumb drive by bending it while it's plugged into the PC. Imagine accidentally doing that with a thumb drive that costs $1,100!
