According to Taiwanese sources, the rapid adoption of USB 2.0 standard will cause another 20% decline in price of peripheral USB 2.0 controllers by the year end. As a result of such decline, soon devices like scanners, printers, cameras, card readers, etc, will utilise USB 2.0 interconnects instead of older and currently considerably cheaper USB 1.1.

Cypress Semiconductor, the largest maker of USB 2.0 peripheral chips decreased their prices in June. The chips sold for $7 in the beginning of this year are now available for $3.5. The rivals of the San Jose based company, including ALi Corporation, Genesys Logic, Realtek Semiconductor, Myson-Century Technology and Syntek Semiconductor have also decided to decline the costs of their USB 2.0 peripheral controllers down to $3.5.

Because of the quickly falling USB 2.0 chips’ prices, peripheral components utilising this bus with up to 480Mb/s bandwidth will continue to spread fastly on the market. Analysts expect USB 2.0 to be supported by 60% of all USB devices made in 2003 and already in the year 2004, the newer standard will displace the older.