Microsoft targets $520bn intelligent device market with next version of Windows Embedded

Roadmap for Windows 8 versions of embedded operating systems is unveiled

Microsoft today said it will ship Windows 8 versions of its embedded operating systems between three and nine months after the desktop version of Windows 8 is released.

The Windows 8 desktop will ship late 2012, said Microsoft at its BUILD Windows 8 Developer Conference in Anaheim earlier this September, who hopes it will catch next year's Christmas market.

Microsoft EMEA Windows Embedded business lead Lorraine Bardeen said Microsoft will be targetting Windows Embedded at the burgeoning ‘intelligent device' market, which analysts IDC said would be worth half a trillion dollars ($520bn) by 2015.

"We'll be shipping the next version of Windows Embedded Enterprise three months after Windows 8 ships for desktop systems," said Barden (below|).

"Windows Embedded Enterprise is primarily used in ATMs and kiosks, and will give full application compatibility with Windows 7 embedded applications, and the power of our premium [client] operating system for embedded devices," added Bardeen.

Windows Embedded Enterprise is not componentised explained Bardeen, "unlike the Windows Embedded Standard OS, which provides a fully customisable and componentised form of the Windows operating system".

"The next version of Windows Embedded Standard will ship nine months after the desktop Windows 8 OS ships," she said.

The reason for providing a componentised form of Windows Embedded is so that device developers can pick out specific Windows client components to optimise their device operating system image with regards to footprint, power consumption and/or application compatibility with current Windows apps.

"We'll also be releasing a community technology preview of the next version of Windows Embedded Standard during Q1 2012, and like the desktop OS will support both x86 and ARM processor architectures," said Bardeen.

Microsoft targets $520bn intelligent device market with next version of Windows Embedded

Roadmap for Windows 8 versions of embedded operating systems is unveiled

Bardeen also said the next version of Microsoft's Windows Embedded Compact OS will be released in the second half of 2012. It is used in real-time, low-power devices.

"With these new embedded operating systems we're focused on three design and decision-making principles: trusted platform, differentiation and data analytics, and we're supporting the embedded platform with our cloud investments, and those we're making in our server and tools business," explained Bardeen.

According to IDC, said Bardeen, the market for intelligent systems (devices with powerful processors, operating systems, sensors and internet connectivity for transmitting unstructured data) would more than double between 2010 and 2015.

"It'll grow from 800 million unit systems to 2.3 billion unit systems by 2015 which, if measured in device shipments, already exceeds the number of mobile phone, PC and server shipments combined," said Bardeen.

To address this market, Bardeen pointed to continued investments in Windows Embedded Device Manager, a device management tool launched in March, which gives firms a "single pane of glass" management view of its embedded devices.

"We'll also be increasingly integrating StreamInsight capabilities into our embedded operating systems to stream unstructured data from intelligent devices to analyse that data in near real time using back-end SQL Server applications," said Bardeen.

StreamInsight is a component of SQL Server 2008 R2 used for complex event processing. Intelligent devices can stream data to back-end SQL Server databases for filtering and processing

"We expect capabilities like StreamInsight and others to be integrated and extended to third-party applications run on our Azure Services cloud platform, which will be increasingly built to take advantage of the intelligent systems category," said Bardeen.