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Not all the software available is free, and it would be over-egging the pudding to say that there’s a huge variety of stuff out there yet. But there is enough high quality free stuff for the kind of basic productivity a lot of us engage in when on the move, which surely should encourage take up.

I’ve been testing U3 on a 1GB Store ‘n’ Go drive from Verbatim but there are also drives available from the likes of Memorex, Kingston, and pretty soon SanDisk too. Some come with software already installed. For example, it looks like SanDisk is going to include an email and file synchronisation tool on its Cruzer U3 drives as well as Skype.

But you don’t need to get a pre-populated drive as adding programmes is really easy. Every U3 device has a ‘Launchpad’ that sticks itself in the System Tray when you insert the drive into the computer you’ll be using. Through the Launchpad you explore your drive’s contents, manage its storage capacity, and, very importantly, install software, either direct from the U3 Web site or from your PC if you’ve already downloaded it.

My experience so far with U3 is limited, but I can already see a lot of potential. All those high powered executives with time to kill in airport lounges and not enough IT skills to tidy up after them could be given U3 key drives by their IT support staff.

Then there are people like me, who have two uses – one for working anywhere, and one for playing anywhere which could be brought together with the U3 concept. If any portable music player manufacturer wants to produce a USB connecting, 40GB (or more) U3 compliant device with super-quality sound output to headphones while on the move, I’ll take it! – though with that sort of capacity it will have to be hard drive based.

In the mean time, I’ll settle for using a synchronising U3 drive as a mini portable hard drive along with whatever laptop I happen to be evaluating at the time.

I’m fully expecting a mushroom effect as people start to catch on to U3. Help me out in creating some enthusiasm by mooching over to www.u3.com and taking a look at what’s on offer.

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