Shipments of USB 3.0-enabled devices are expected to reach 80 million units this year. As reported by CNET News, market researcher In-Stat noted that 2011 "should be a much bigger year" for USB 3.0, also known as SuperSpeed. Despite its fledgling uptake since its emergence in 2010, having 80 million USB 3.0 devices available for sale this year sounds like a very healthy figure to me.

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) announced earlier that it will incorporate built-in support for USB 3.0 in its new Ivy Bridge chips, which are scheduled to ship in 2012. That should eliminate any lingering doubts about the future of USB 3.0. In addition, rival chipmaker AMD is scheduled to ship its new A-Series processors this year, which also come with built-in support for USB 3.0. However, mobile phones incorporating the SuperSpeed USB interface are not expected to arrive until at least 2013.

To put things in perspective, a whopping 3.5 billion USB devices shipped in 2010, of which almost three quarters are the faster USB 2.0 variants. 

For more:
- check out this article at Maximum PC
- check out this article at CNET News

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