By Dan Jones and Jo Maitland
The future of Microsoft Corp’s CE operating system looks bleak – at least in the PDA market – as Everex Systems Inc announced that it will no longer be making CE-based handhelds. The announcement comes just weeks after Philips Electronics said that it was dropping its Nino line of handheld organizers. And all of this may just be a harbinger for Microsoft, as rumors floating round at Comdex suggest that Compaq Computer Corp may be next to jettison the OS.
Industry watchers have noted that not even Microsoft’s latest product; the Web Companion – which will arrive in a variety of shapes and sizes – was sullied by its association with Windows CE. Gates did not mention the OS once when introducing the new product during his Comdex keynote, despite highlighting wireless devices as an important technology going forward. For the first time in 25 years Microsoft has actually changed its mission statement to incorporate this. It now says that Microsoft’s goal is to: Empower people through great software any time, any place and on any device. There is no longer any mention of the PC or even computing. In spite of this new mission, the company has no clear strategy for CE and in fact believes that people who do not use PCs today will gravitate towards them from PDA devices.
During a panel on the future of internet appliances at Comdex yesterday, Microsoft senior VP of consumer products, Craig Mundie said that the largest number of non-PC products sold are WebTVs and from these users move to a PC. They are like training wheels for the PC, he said, provoking cries of laughter from a packed auditorium. Also on the panel were Alan Kessler, president of Palm Computing Inc and Bill Joy, chief technology officer at Sun Microsystems Inc. Both attacked Mundie for not understanding that simplicity is the key to handheld devices, while Microsoft insists on pushing CE, which Kessler and Joy say is clunky and too complex.
Probably the biggest setback for Microsoft and its Windows CE platform will have been the news that its number one partner, Compaq, has an advanced handheld research project underway with its Itsy R&D effort. The Itsy is a handheld based on Linux with video streaming capabilities and low power consumption. It seems that Compaq may now bring out its own version of the Web Companion, which it co-designed with Microsoft, using the Linux kernel and streaming capabilities derived from the Itsy project.
Jack Gold, head of the mobile and pervasive computing practice at Meta Group comments: There are several companies investigating the release of web-based companion devices that run under Linux. [They] don’t want to pay Microsoft’s license fees, which are a substantial burden for a low end, low cost device. I expect to see Linux based devices out within three to six months. I know Compaq was…investigating [a Linux device].
