USB 3.0 specification is now finalized
 

It is anticipated that initial SuperSpeed USB discrete controllers will appear in the second half of 2009 and consumer products will appear in 2010, with adoption continuing throughout 2010. The first SuperSpeed USB devices will likely include data-storage devices such as flash drives, external hard drives, digital music players and digital cameras.

Intel's original announcement said the USB 3.0 spec would feature optimizations for low power consumption, "improved protocol efficiency," and support for optical connections. With a top theoretical transfer speed of 4.8Gbps, USB 3.0 might enable file transfer speeds of a few hundred megs per second. That could make it an interesting competitor to external Serial ATA for hooking up speedy external storage—among other things. Both Serial ATA and FireWire should get speed boosts by the time SuperSpeed USB devices start showing up, though.

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/15906