In my experience, they're just as likely to be read as a weird typo of mega/giga as not and I've seen SSDs advertised using the wrong prefixes a lot, so there's

In my experience, they're just as likely to be read as a weird typo of mega/giga as not and I've seen SSDs advertised using the wrong prefixes a lot, so there's another layer of ambiguity we wouldn't have if those prefixes had been picked with relative laypeople in mind. Even people who should know about these use 1024 for a kilobyte, and I usually add (1024^3) or something like that if ambiguity is a potential issue. I've been burnt before by trusting that gibi will be understood. My particular set of anecdata would strongly suggest it's not a very successful standard so far. That "nearest power of two to decimal kilo/mega/giga" is a weird concept in itself doesn't help, and the chosen prefixes are completely non-obvious and alien to me and apparently others as well. I don't think it's going to take hold anytime soon. Besides, if ambiguity is all there is to worry about, just use 2^30 bytes. No ambiguity at all (I believe) – but it may be a lot less effective in actual communication in lots of situations.