>I wouldn't expect WIND to be mentioned along with Auto PCs.
>Their strength will be under-the-hood.
The Auto PC is a Wintel thing at the moment. All the companies mentioned are working along with Wintel to promote and begin to define various incarnations of a PC in a car, clearly using Windows CE as a foundation. This is why WIND would not be expected to be included in the list. For WIND to be included, something unexpected would needed, like I2O.
You are correct that WIND has strength under hood, an area Windows CE probably never will encounter, but don't be surprised if WIND showed up in Auto PCs as well - just not Wintel Auto PCs. VxWorks has been used for auto navigation systems for years. These systems have been slow to market in the U.S., but are popular in Japan. By now Nisson's auto navigation system, which has been spun off to Xanavi, a partnership between Nissan and Hitachi, is well advanced. The Birdview auto-navigation system is being factory installed in 10% of Nissan automobiles, and about 70% of their high-end autos. WIND announced quite awhile ago that VxWorks is used in Birdview.
Check it out at: xanavi.co.jp
A combined, complicated, all-in-one Auto PC by Wintel is not guaranteed to succeed, although that's the impression being promoted by Wintel and their partners. Many functional components of what may be defined as an Auto PC exists today, and may well end up going to market in a more piece-meal, consumer-oriented fashion. If so, Wintel will be forced to tag along as commodity players in the developing market. VxWorks would end up underpinning more in-the-cab devices than Microsoft.
On the other hand, if a do-everything Auto PC becomes popular, expect competition from Japanese consumer products companies, NCI and others to define and occupy a portion of this space. In this case, guess who will be pulled along?
Allen |
