U3 replacement?

I was just wondering why the U3 technology was discontinued, and if there was a replacement for it. The End of Life notice explains that “U3 was originally developed to enable downloading portable applications to run from flash drives without installing on a computer.” This still seems like a very useful capability to me, and I still use it daily. Is there some other method for doing this that replaced U3?

Thanks.

If you still have U3 capability this thread may interest you: 

http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/All-SanDisk-USB-Flash-Drives/U3-COM-What-s-up-with-U3-Website/m-p/185386/highlight/true

If you no longer have a U3 USB drive but want portablity this link will interest you:

http://portableapps.com/platform/features