Can Flash Drive R/W Speeds Be Improved?

While copying about 600 Mbs of photos from my USB flash drive to my computer, I found out that the reading speeds were abysmally low (around 10 Mbps). I began wondering whether the technology should really focus on improving the R/W speeds of the USB flash drives? Anyone familiar with the electronics that goes into the USB Flash Drives? What can be done to improve the speeds?