The “Post-PC” era may be near at hand, according to the findings of a recently completed market study conducted by eTForecasts. The study projects that Windows CE-based devices may outsell Windows-based PCs within 5 years. According to the report, Microsoft has made “tremendous progress” in positioning its Windows CE and derivative operating systems for use in a broad range of handheld and… mobile devices such as PDAs and Smartphones, and only embedded Linux is poised to represent a major long-term across-the-board competitor to Microsoft.

Increasingly smart devices

“Computer hardware and software platforms have started to invade many electronics device categories and will become the preferred system architecture for an increasing portion of electronic devices,” noted the report's author, Dr. Egil Juliussen. “Only the simplest devices with fixed functionality will avoid this trend.”

“Microsoft is taking advantage of the inevitable penetration of microprocessors and embedded software platforms into all electronics devices”, Juliussen continued. “It is not a question if this will happen, but a question of when it will happen for each device category.”

Mainly a two-horse race

“Most Windows CE platform competitors only compete in a single or a few product segments,” explained Juliussen. “Only software platforms using embedded Linux versions are competing [with Microsoft] across the board. Even though embedded Linux is behind Windows CE in most segments, the long-term battle will be between these two software platforms.”

“The only exception is handheld device categories where Palm and Symbian are the strongest competitors to Microsoft's Pocket PC,” Juliussen added.

 
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