This IDC study investigates the recent emergence of "Smart USB Flash Drives (UFDs)": UFDs with the ability to run applications directly from the device itself. Several vendors are approaching the market with different technology offerings and targeting different end-user groups, but they all are working towards implementing this technology in most, if not all, UFDs, as they plan ahead for the next transformation in our portable computing experience: the Portable Identity Device.

"USB Flash Drives have begun to evolve from simple data storage devices to a portable, personalized, computing devices. The next step in this evolution would be to make other devices, such as portable media players and cellular phones, able to help users take their PC working environment with them on the road, and use any remote PC as the host for computational processes, while the applications, data, and preferences are stored on the portable device. But to truly offer this portability to the enterprise user, vendors need to address security, management, and licensing issues." ? Gilad Nass, Research Director, Emerging Technologies