The market for embedded Linux software, tools, and services grew significantly during 2006, surpassing the $100 million mark, reports Venture Development Corp. (VDC). However, growth has slowed since 2005, when the embedded Linux market grew a whopping 30 and 40 percent, according to the research firm.

The finding is from VDC's annual “Embedded Software Market Intelligence Program: Linux in the Embedded Systems Market.” VDC's results closely reverberate with those from LinuxDevices.com's own reader survey, which during the last couple of years, has found Linux adoption continuing to grow, albeit at a slower rate than in the early part of the decade.

Which OSes have been in your (company's) embedded designs during the past two years?
(Source: 2007 LinuxDevices reader survey; click for details)

VDC lists factors behind Linux's growth that include:

• Developer control afforded by access to source code
• Market demands for connectivity
• Better and better Linux-specific tools
• Silicon and board vendors bundling Linux
• Wind River's ongoing push into the market
• Reduced legal concerns

Commercial embedded Linux providers continue to face challenges, however, VDC believes, largely because “more and more” embedded Linux users choose to forgo commercial distributions. Reasons for this may include:

• Growing in-house experience with Linux
• Publicly available, non-commercial Linux improving

Additional threats to commercial embedded Linux providers include strong competition from Microsoft and others, and the perceived technical limitations of Linux, mainly in footprint and real-time.

VDC found the largest commercial players in the market for Linux and associated technologies such as virtualization to be, in alphabetical order, ARM, MontaVista, Sysgo, VirtualLogix, and Wind River. “Key battlegrounds” for Linux are identified as telecom/datacom, consumer electronics, and mobile phones. The firm's research report also breaks down results by geography and by vertical market.

To learn more, read the entire VDC summary finding on the 2006 Embedded Linux Market, here (republished by LinuxDevices.com with VDC's permission).

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.