USB standard is one of the most widely used, but recently it got strong competition from Intel's Thunderbolt, which can deliver transfer rate of up to 10 Gbps. The new USB 3.1 standard promises to deliver twice the transfer rate of USB 3.0, the same as Thunderbolt.

Several manufacturers have already announced to release new devices that will use the brand new USB 3.1 technology at the upcoming CES 2015. Except for the performance improvements, the new USB 3.1 includes universal reversible ports (replaces both USB and microUSB) and the ability to deliver up to 100W of power.