More generally, it seems that the "USB disk" abstraction layer allows innovation in storage without the pain of hardware standards adoption. I understand using this disk for consumer-ish stuff as a means of enforcing copyright via hardware, but why would commercial users care?
I suspect that a fairly common use for commercial users would be medical imaging storage -- huge amounts of data, but rarely accessed. A few other pluses for medical applications: hospitals care about volumetric density so that they don't have to store giant piles of USB keys; they don't want to have to maintain electronics on a per-disc basis so harddrives aren't the best solution.
Just a thought, but GE usually markets towards industries with technological applications rather than computer technologies themselves.
Also, what if the requirement of 1Mx+ re-writability was removed? It's not like the hospital will re-use the media that many times if its purpose is long-term storage. What other requirements could be removed to improve density, cost, etc. ?