Runtime Revolution is about to give you an opportunity of a lifetime. How? Revolution staff have devoted resources and time to the U3 platform. Because of this effort, RunRev application developers can take advantage of a software distribution opportunity that rarely shows its face.

If you have never heard of U3, I can understand that. But, I am sure you have heard of USB flash drives, right? Last year, over 80 million USB flash drives were sold and this year, it is expected to be over 115 million worldwide. In fact, you can buy a 1 GB for under $50USD now!

So, what is U3? U3 is a software company. We have software that lets you run applications from a flash drive without installing anything on the computer that you are plugged into. U3 gives you a built in framework for installing, managing, running, stopping, host cleaning, and uninstalling applications. It's somewhat like a Windows Start menu and a Control Panel for a USB flash drive, but much more.

We work with flash drive makers like SanDisk, Memorex, Kingston, Verbatim, Toshiba, and many more to provide them with a firmware specification for the new generation USB flash drive called U3 smart drives. The U3 software comes preloaded from the factory. You can buy U3 smart drives at places like Best Buy, Fry's, Office Depot, and on-line at buy.com and other e-tailers. Just search on U3 smart drive.

We also work very closely with software developers to provide them with all the tools they need to make their applications run on the U3 platform.

Here's the big news. RunRev can now automatically produce an application that is ready to run on the U3 platform. It's a wonderful feature that has recently been added to Revolution. So, if you own an Enterprise license and are on the Beta list, you can download it now.

OK. Imagine your application in the hands of, say, 20 million people.

We expect to see 20 to 30 million U3 smart drives sold this year worldwide. That's your opportunity!

U3 offers an on-line store where you can host your U3 smart application. You can see it at http://software.U3.com. We can also talk about how your application may be bundled at the factory, if the vendor thinks they can do a rev share or differentiate themselves from their competitors on the retail shelf.

For now, let me close by saying how excited I am to be able to tap into a group of developers who offer us more potential than I have seen in quite some time. Although we have been seeing more and more name brand software companies jumping into the U3 ecosystem, we have not seen the killer application yet.

Sure, you can carry Firefox and Thunderbird on your keychain. Sure, you can run McAfee Anti-Virus and Skype from your U3 smart drive. You can even add backup and sync software so you can stop the manual process of dragging and dropping files that you want to take with you. And yes, you might even want to add a password manager to manage all of your passwords and Web sites you visit. My password manager gives me "speed dialing" capabilities on the Internet.

So, my true hope is that one (or more) of you will come up with a killer Revolution application that causes U3 smart drives to be sold in the millions. You can translate that into real dollars.

If you have any questions about U3, please start by visiting the Developer tab at www.U3.com. Once you have your application ready, please contact Nathan Gold at Nathan@U3.com to submit it for certification. Once you pass, you can be hosted in U3 Software Central.

Until next time,
Nathan