Hi Tom,
I'll try to respond to your last couple of questions over the weekend. In the mean time, here are a few more links to articles which suggest that Windows CE continues to gain acceptance. These articles should be viewed against the background of the one you linked from the L.A. Times (good article).
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Microsoft sees wide-open field for 'appliances'
Microsoft Corp. operating systems power up to 90 percent of the world's PCs, but the market for new consumer devices is wide open. Craig Mundie, senior vice president of Microsoft's consumer platforms division oversees consumer products, WebTV and policy related to cryptography and digital television. Mundie spoke recently with Mercury News reporters about WebTV and how Microsoft envisions future appliance-like consumer devices. This is a transcript of that conversation, edited by staff writer Jodi Mardesich.
mercurycenter.com
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FutureSoft Announces DynaComm Connectivity Series for Handheld PCs
New Product Offers Windows CE Connectivity Solution
HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 27, 1998--FutureSoft Inc. today enters the handheld market with the announcement of their new DynaComm Connectivity Series(R) for Handheld PCs (DCS-H/PC). This new product adapts the functionality of DynaComm Connectivity Series 7.0 (DCS 7.0) -- FutureSoft's flagship PC -- and Web-to-host connectivity solution-to fit these remote devices.
biz.yahoo.com
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Proxim and Odyssey Software Delivering Industry's First Wireless LAN Connection of Windows CE Devices to Enterprise Systems
Companies Demonstrating Windows CE and Wireless Enterprise Integration for Increased Mobility and Real-Time Information Access via Latest Handheld Devices
NEW ORLEANS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 27, 1998-- Proxim, Inc., (NASDAQ:PROX - news), and Odyssey Software, Inc., today announced an alliance to deliver the industry's first wireless local area network (LAN) connection of mobile handheld devices running the Microsoft(R) Windows(R) CE operating system to critical information located in enterprise systems.
Using Microsoft BackOffice(R) as a platform, the companies will demonstrate this seamless connection, enabled by Proxim's proven RangeLAN2(tm) wireless LAN technology and Odyssey's recently announced CEfusion(tm) software suite, next week in booth No. 901 at the Microsoft Tech-Ed '98/Fusion '98 event in New Orleans.
biz.yahoo.com
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Computer chip makers aim at the device market
A Chip for Every Occasion
5:04am 28.May.98.PDT
Makers of Smart Phones, WebTVs, and other consumer information appliances using Windows CE want a new kind of manufacturing flexibility: The ability to produce a new digital device every time a shift in the market mood appears.
To do so, they are quietly collaborating with specialty chip design houses to produce new "processor cores" -- embedded chips that can be built quickly, to reduce design time and speed delivery of the myriad devices to market.
...The development platform also allows the integration of the chip-maker's intellectual property (IP) with IP from a variety of other sources. Testing, de-bugging, and optimization are accomplished prior to the commitment to silicon....
...And because hardware and software developers cooperate at an early stage, feature-sets are selected and optimized cost-effectively, and many expensive and time-consuming integration problems are averted. Development cycles for customer-optimized products can be shortened by as much as 50 percent, said Slusarczyk.....
wired.com
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Database Developers Target Windows CE Platform Enterprise Applications Shrink To Fit Handheld Clients
As handheld computers based on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows CE 2.0 begin to come to market, software developers are beginning to link these new devices to corporate enterprise. Although basic applications such as Pocket Word and Pocket Excel are built into the operating system, several vendors have announced Windows CE support for "personal database client" software that turns palmtops into sales-force automation tools.
zdnet.com
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Microsoft, Sega Collaborate on Dreamcast: The Ultimate Home Video Game System
Inclusion of Windows CE Operating System Creates Platform That Will Deliver Innovations in Next-Generation Games and Entertainment
REDMOND, Wash., May 21 -- Microsoft Corp. today announced it will collaborate with Sega Enterprises Ltd. on Sega's new Dreamcast home video game system, slated for release in Japan on Nov. 20, 1998, and in the rest of the world in 1999. As a result of the collaboration, Microsoft will provide an optimized version of the Microsoftr Windowsr CE operating system with integrated
techmall.com
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Non-PC client market expected to heat up -- IBM: Big Promise In Small Devices
Armonk, N.Y. -- The small-device segment looks to IBM Corp. like the little market that could. The expected growth of the non-PC client market-smart cards, handhelds and cellular phones-has drawn the attention of a company known for big-iron mainframes.
"You will have smart cards, set-top boxes and Coke machines [with computers], all of which will be connected via the network to a server," said John Thompson, IBM's senior vice president and software group executive, at Technical Interchange '98 earlier this month.
techweb.com
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Consumer camp sets its home-net agenda
Santa Clara, Calif. - Armed with a set of freshly minted home-networking APIs for digital appliances, consumer-electronics giants are pushing to define their own architectural agenda for the home network, in hopes of gaining an edge on would-be competitors in the PC sector. The effort could bring Java deeper into the consumer space than it's ever been.
Called the Home Audio-Video interoperability (HAVi) architecture, the specification from eight major consumer companies allows digital appliances designed by different manufacturers to connect and interact over an IEEE 1394-based link, with or without the presence of a PC.
HAVi members hope for PC industry cooperation. Indeed, Sony believes it can get the support of Microsoft and Sun, both of whom it has been briefing through the separate deals Sony recently cut to license Windows CE and Personal Java.
techweb.com
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Well,.....that's it for now.
Bill |
