Continued
Can you see an increase in U3 enabled drives over normal flash drives in terms of usage or sales?
Again, U3 does not track these statistics. However, we have seen growing interest in U3 based on customer feedback, visits to our blogs, response from business partners as well as the growing number of partners—both software developers and hardware manufacturers—who support the U3 smart platform.
More and more technicians use a form of Windows PE to do diagnostics, some tools are specially made for those situations. Is that a form of competition for U3?
We don’t perceive this as competition, however it does support the idea of portable applications and tools used by professionals.
Do you expect those same tools to become available for the U3 platform in the near future? (Ghost PE, locksmith, ERD Commander etc)
U3 is working with a broad variety of software vendors, including companies in the tools space. We are adding titles to our online e-commerce store (www.u3.com) on a daily basis.
Can you describe to us the benefits of U3 in your eyes?
U3 turns the promise of anywhere, anytime, any-PC computing into a reality. Imagine carrying your favorite software, preferences and profiles on the same flash drive that carries your files. That’s what you can do with a U3 smart drive. You can plug it into any PC and work, play a game, message friends, send email, edit photos and more. It doesn’t matter if the computer has the right software, because you have it right on your drive. Several leading brands offer U3 smart drives with popular programs bundled right in. And you can download dozens more—most of them free—right to your drive at U3.com.
A U3 smart drive makes any PC your own PC. And when you unplug it, it leaves no trace of your personal data behind. So you can use it in places where PCs are available, like internet cafes, hotel business centers or airport lounges. And if you share a PC with co-workers or family members, everyone’s files stay private and secure.
One of the greatest benefits of U3 smart drives is that U3 smart software will run on any U3 smart drive from any of the 19 hardware manufacturers who are supporting the platform worldwide. That gives users tremendous choice. By uniting the USB flash drive industry and software developers around a single development platform with best of breed technology, U3 brings the benefit of universal personal workspace portability to hardware manufacturers, applications developers, and end-users alike.
Where do you see this technology going to? What's in store for the future?
We can’t necessarily predict the future, but we can envision additional scenarios where users definitely benefit from U3 smart technology.
People are already using smart drives to personalize access on shared computers. This will become ubiquitous because as people become more mobile, and as computing—especially online computing—becomes more personalized, they’re going to want to have their profiles and access to online services always with them in a small, portable and convenient drive. So U3 smart drives will become essential in connecting the two worlds of online/offline access.
We can easily envision that people will own and use more than one smart drive. For example, they might have one smart drive for family photo albums, one for personal finances, one for games, one for work files…
With the smart drive increasingly becoming the essential computing device, it could replace the laptop or PC as the primary storage device. The PC provides the operating system as a convenience appliance, much the same as a wall socket provides electricity. The smart drives becomes the real versatile workhorse. And that also means a reversal of how we do back-up: hard drives will back-up and archive smart drives.
“U3 Smart Spots” could emerge as the new public computing infrastructure in travel lounges, hotel business centers, Internet cafés, student computer labs… where you simply plug your smart drive into a simple USB port.
Smart drives will eventually carry software that runs on multiple operating systems.
U3 smart technology could extend to other devices – like cards, handsets, PDAs, etc.
And we’re already seeing a glimpse into an era when smart devices will interface with non-PC systems including automobiles, entertainment systems, communications devices, etc.
Are you going to implement other operating system platforms? Eg MacOS, Linux etc.?
Additional operating systems are on our roadmap, in particular Mac and Linux.
If other platforms are going to be supported, is it going to be crossplatform? Eg use the drive with programs on Windows, move to a different machine, use the programs on Linux?
The specific implementation across platforms has not been finalized yet.
Do you expect U3 to play a part in replacing certain elements in the operating system? Eg roaming profiles?
U3 will continue to focus on where it can add most value, which is related to making applications, profiles and settings more portable. Other companies are experts at operating systems.
Is U3 going to take advantage of programs that are installed on the hard disk and save the settings on the U3 device? Or the other way around, is there going to be software that is 'U3 aware' and save their settings to a U3 device?
U3 has the notion of “U3 aware” applications already and both scenarios can be implemented today
What do you think of Ceedo? Are they the competition?
We can’t comment on Ceedo. But we can tell you why we believe U3 is unique and is setting the standard for smart drive computing.
U3 is a platform with a framework for managing the way applications run on the drive.
Thanks to the U3 smart controller, U3 smart drives offer the added security of device-level password authentication, a secure encrypted channel between the host PC and the smart drive, and a unique ID associated with each individual drive that enables private and secure data storage and application licensing.
U3 is creating an entire ecosystem and bringing together a global community of users, manufacturers and developers, creating a variety of applications and uses for U3 smart drives.
U3 is setting a global standard, with U3 smart drives and applications from an ever-growing list of recognized industry leaders representing both well-known market leaders within the PC peripheral industry as well as global powerhouse brands. The U3 platform now has support from 19 major hardware partners around the world, representing over 50 different models of U3 smart drives.
More than 9,000 copies of the U3 software developer kit (SDK) have been downloaded, providing a critical mass of support for the U3 platform and resulting in an ever-growing selection of U3 smart software applications.
U3 has built a smart drive computing platform that makes developing U3 smart hardware and software solutions easy for hardware and software developers. The U3 smart platform represents a standard that runs equally across any U3 smart drive from any manufacturer. By adopting the U3 platform, hardware manufacturers can ensure their USB smart drives are compatible with all U3 smart applications.
For software developers, the U3 platform makes adapting or creating mobile applications for U3 smart drives quick and easy. Developers have the advantage of knowing their U3 smart applications will have broad applicability and can be assured that their applications will run the way they're supposed to, consistently, on any PC.
That concludes our interview with U3, we'd like to thank Esther Kruijver and everyone else at U3 for helping us making this interview possible.
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