Lexar to bundle Google apps on USB flash drives

InformationWeek is reporting that Lexar and Google have made a deal that will ship Google's apps, including Picasa, Google Desktop, and Google Toolbar, on Lexar's USB flash drives. The Google apps will be included on Lexar's JumpDrive product line. The article goes on to describe Lexar's product VP Steffen Hellmold's vision to put users' an entire operating environment on USB drives, stating, "The vision at some point in the future is to have a complete operating system on the USB flash drive that would be bootable from the device," Hellmold said. "You could bring your computing environment with you -- your operating system, data and applications." Will people actually use apps bundled on flash drives, or just delete them to free up space? Is this the wave of the future, or a strategy doomed to fail?

Tags: apps, desktop search, flash drive, google, google desktop, google toolbar, hardware, jumpdrive, lexar, picasa, usb drive