I think what you missed is that, with their business model (licence revenues for the host environment plus royalties for the target environment) the design wins come first, followed by the royalties.
Last year, they claim to have over 4000 design wins. While not all will turn into actual products, a significant percentage will, and each one will be a royalty for WIND.
As an example, think of cable or DSL modems. The number actually sold to date is quite small compared to the number that will ultimately be sold.
As another, think of Intel's new communications processor. It is only starting to go into production, but I believe VxWorks is the only OS that supports it. Current revenue to WIND is probably only for development seats. When the processor starts to ship in volume--and Intel hasn't been shy about claiming that communications is a major part of their future strategy--WIND will see the Royalties. In fact, WIND and Intel are trying to do for the communications industry (standardized components and software) that Intel and MSFT did for the PC industry. The great thing for Wind is that they are pervasive in this industry, so even if Intel's processors do not become dominant, it is still likely that Wind will see tremendous growth.
The wireless area has been a disappointment for me as it relates to WIND. While they are all over the base station area (for virtually all the major players) they haven't yet shown up in the handset area--my guess is that they will show up BIG in non phone handhelds, and that they will leap from that to 3G handsets.
And there is also cars, aircraft, cameras, printers, etc |
