I remember being stunned when I learned that a Lion thumb drive cost $40 more than a Lion d/l from the App Store, but I just bought a thumb drive, and I'm revisiting that thought.

I was first struck (and I imagine that it's no more than a result of my not being particularly up to date technologically) by the minuscule size of the 8 GB thumb drive (which is less than 1/8" thick), but I was more taken aback by drive's interface, which, rather than being a standard male USB connector, is something altogether different...those four coppery things on its side, the likes of which I've never seen before.

I'm now wondering whether the physical drive, itself, is not (to some degree, at least) disproportionately costly because of some proprietary Apple technology used in its fabrication?

Or perhaps it is Apple's not so subtle way of encouraging you to use the lower price download option and weaning users away from receiving software on physical media.

Those 4 visible contacts look to me like a minimal size male USB jack minus (here unnecessary) jack shielding, nothing particularly proprietary about that. The drive is thin, short and light enough to fit snugly and safely in the 'business side' of a standard USB receptacle, and will work just fine provided it's right side up. The design is both nice and cheap to produce, but of limited use and not exclusive to Apple.

I'd guess no, because the thumb drives were specifically targeted at users who wanted to upgrade to Lion but didn't have high-speed d/l capability. (I guess Apple's not marketing Mountain Lion thumb drives signals the advent of universal high-speed Internet.)

They weren't even marketed as a solution for owners of new Macs with Lion who don't have the high-speed d/l capability necessary for the only kind of re-install their Macs are capable of. (That, of course, would have recognized an ongoing necessity and mandated thumb drives for each new version of OS X, and, to change the subject slightly, the lack of such recognition may, no, probably will, ultimately spawn a booming business in bootleg OS X discs and thumb drives as Apple releases new versions of OS X, makes earlier ones unavailable by legal means, and totally screws late adopters in the process.)

Weaning us away from physical media? I'd say that Apple's more like beating us into submission.

The reason I'm the world's worst shopper is because I never do the right search 'til after I've bought the wrong thing.

You're correct about both the functionality of the design and the fact that it's not proprietary, but, I think, not about "cheap to produce."

There don't seem to be many such drives around, and the ones I've found have been kinda pricey (although not pricey enough to justify Apple's charging $40 for them...one man's opinion).

And there's a flip-side to the equation, because on top of making money on the high markup on the already high-priced component, Apple saves money on the free shipping of the resultant extremely lightweight drives.

Paraphrasing David Pogue: Evil, but brilliantly evil.

Edit: Or would quoting him, "Brilliant, but evilly brilliant," be more accurate?

Edit 2: On second thought, the two ought to be reversed:

Quoting David Pogue: "Brilliant, but evilly brilliant."

Or would paraphrasing him, Evil, but brilliantly evil, be more accurate?