By Dan Jones
In a bid to reinvigorate its fading presence in the handheld computer market, Microsoft Corp is planning to rebrand Windows CE-based handhelds and personal digital assistants as ‘Windows Powered’ devices. The exercise is an attempt to rid Windows CE- based devices of the bad reputation they have garnered in the handheld market. Handheld devices and set-top boxes will still use Windows CE but will simply be referred to as Windows-Powered. Thin client terminals and other embedded systems will still be called Windows CE devices
Microsoft says that the rebranding will help to stop customer confusion as a variety of consumer devices – in a number of different formats – such as set-top boxes, handhelds, and smartphones, arrive on the market. Consumers shouldn’t worry about what’s running under the hood, said Brian Shafer, marketing manager for Microsoft’s Information Appliance Division, who pointed out that WinCE will be used in devices from gas pumps to handhelds. However, Shafer admitted that calling WinCE consumer devices ‘Windows-Powered’ could cause customers to expect that a mobile device had all the features of the Windows desktop OS. We understand that’s an issue, we absolutely do have to define the difference…as these devices roll out, he said, adding that the move from Windows CE to Windows Powered would happen as handheld manufacturers rolled out new devices. He said that Hewlett Packard, Compaq and Casio would all be launching ‘Windows-Powered’ handhelds.
However, Seamus McAteer, director of web strategies at Jupiter Communications, doubts that rebranding Windows CE will improve Microsoft’s position in the handheld market. Windows CE on handhelds is a failed business, McAteer said, bluntly. And he doubts that ‘Windows-Powered’ set-top boxes will make much of impression on the consumer. Windows inside your set-top box, who gives a damn?’ he said. Windows needed to be a monopoly in the PC market, McAteer claimed, because then users knew that a vast array of applications would run on the desktop and they had a simple upgrade path. The set-top market is quite different, he said, because people won’t be running applications or upgrading the OS on a set-top box, simply accessing the internet, email accounts and downloading digital media content.
Microsoft’s next version of Windows CE, code-named Rapier, is expected to be released next Spring, although Shafer wouldn’t confirm this. He did say that the new version of the OS would offer beefed-up real-time support and wireless functions, something Microsoft has been promising for some time. Sources also expect that versions of the modular operating system for handhelds will feature a natural handwriting interface, culled from Microsoft’s work with Vandem Inc.
