Question: When did the first usb flash drive appear on the retail market?

Disambiguated questions and answers:
context: No context provided
question: When did the first usb flash drive appear on the global retail market?
short_answers: early 2000
context: M-Systems, an Israeli company, were granted a US patent on November 14, 2000, titled "Architecture for a [USB]-based Flash Disk", and crediting the invention to Amir Ban, Dov Moran and Oron Ogdan, all M-Systems employees at the time. The patent application was filed by M-Systems in April 1999. Later in 1999, IBM filed an invention disclosure by one of its employees. Flash drives were sold initially by Trek 2000 International, a company in Singapore, which began selling in early 2000. IBM became the first to sell USB flash drives in the United States in 2000. The initial storage capacity of a flash drive was 8 MB. Another version of the flash drive, described as a pen drive, was also developed. Pua Khein-Seng from Malaysia has been credited with this invention. Patent disputes have arisen over the years, with competing companies including Singaporean company Trek Technology and Chinese company Netac Technology, attempting to enforce their patents. Trek won a suit in Singapore, but has lost battles in other countries. Netac Technology has brought lawsuits against PNY Technologies, Lenovo, aigo, Sony, and Taiwan's Acer and Tai Guen Enterprise Co.
question: When did the first usb flash drive appear on the retail market in the United States?
short_answers: 2000
wikipage: USB flash drive
context: In January 2013, tech company Kingston, released a flash drive with 1 TB of storage. The first USB 3.1 type-C flash drives, with read/write speeds of around 530 MB/s, were announced in March 2015. As of July 2016, flash drives with 8 to 256 GB capacity were sold more frequently than those with capacitites between 512 GB and 1 TB. In 2017, Kingston Technology announced the release of a 2-TB flash drive. In 2018, SanDisk announced a 1TB USB-C flash drivve, the smallest of its kind.
question: When did the first usb flash drive with 1 TB of storage appear on the retail market?
short_answers: January 2013
wikipage: USB flash drive
context: In January 2013, tech company Kingston, released a flash drive with 1 TB of storage. The first USB 3.1 type-C flash drives, with read/write speeds of around 530 MB/s, were announced in March 2015. As of July 2016, flash drives with 8 to 256 GB capacity were sold more frequently than those with capacitites between 512 GB and 1 TB. In 2017, Kingston Technology announced the release of a 2-TB flash drive. In 2018, SanDisk announced a 1TB USB-C flash drivve, the smallest of its kind.
question: When did the first 2-TB usb flash drive appear on the retail market?
short_answers: 2017
wikipage: USB flash drive
context: In January 2013, tech company Kingston, released a flash drive with 1 TB of storage. The first USB 3.1 type-C flash drives, with read/write speeds of around 530 MB/s, were announced in March 2015. As of July 2016, flash drives with 8 to 256 GB capacity were sold more frequently than those with capacitites between 512 GB and 1 TB. In 2017, Kingston Technology announced the release of a 2-TB flash drive. In 2018, SanDisk announced a 1TB USB-C flash drivve, the smallest of its kind.
question: When did the first 1TB USB-C flash drive appear on the retail market?
short_answers: 2018
wikipage: USB flash drive

Long-form answers:
knowledge: content: The basis for USB flash drives is flash memory, a type of floating-gate semiconductor memory invented by Fujio Masuoka in the early 1980s. Flash memory uses floating-gate MOSFET transistors as memory cells.
wikipage: USB flash drive
content: However, despite these lawsuits, the question of who was the first to invent the USB flash drive has not been definitively settled and multiple claims persist.
wikipage: USB flash drive
long_answer: The basis of USB flash drives is flash memory, a type of floating-gate semiconductor memory invented by Fujio Masuoka in the early 1980s. The question of who was the first to invent the USB flash drive has not been definitively settled and multiple claims persist. An Israeli company M-Systems were granted a US patent on November 14,2000. A company in Singapore, Trek 200 International sold flash drives in early 2000. The first 1 TB storage flash drive hit the market in January 2013, released by tech company Kingston. The same company released a 2-TB flash drive in 2017. SanDisk announced a 1TB USB-C flash drive, the smallest of its kind, in 2018.