Natick, MA — Venture Development Corp (VDC) has released the following complimentary research bulletin, as part of VDC's ongoing Embedded Software Strategic Market Intelligence Program . . .

VDC's Embedded Systems Industry Bulletin — September 2002

During the second half of 2002, VDC has been conducting an extensive round of embedded software developer surveying. VDC partnered with leading trade journals and tapped into our own proprietary developer panel to generate over 450 valid respondents.

Although the embedded systems industry is a global market, VDC wanted to understand the differences between developers, their teams and their technology preferences in the North American and European markets. These markets are the two largest in the world accounting for over 80% of commercial embedded software and services, so understanding potential customers in these markets is critical to assisting our subscribers and clients expand their businesses. To that end, the embedded developer[s] we have responses [from] are roughly split 50/50 between Europe and North America, giving us what we believe is the first data set capable of being segmented by geographic market.

The following preliminary data is being distributed as a complementary service, while the complete data set and cross tabs will be available in early 2003 in VDC's report Embedded Operating Systems and Software Development Tools. A more extensive set of preliminary data will be available to VDC clients in late 2002. VDC Commentary Our overall reaction to the two sets of data is amazement at the startling similarities and the profound differences.

• The lack of penetration of commercial OSs into Europe is a key highlight of this preliminary data. While on the surface this may appear to offer significant growth prospects for suppliers of commercial software, VDC cautions that some tempering of that enthusiasm is necessary given what appears to a higher us of No OS as those using No OS will likely not require a commercial version unless the nature of their product fundamentally changes (e.g. Internet/Network connectivity).

• The appeal of UML in the European market is worthy of note.

• Sweden-based IAR has received high marks for its compiler code size vs. the competition in this survey. VDC estimates that IAR had 1.7% of the European market for commercial embedded development solutions in 2001. The company has consistently received high ratings in VDC reports, but its showing here illustrates its strong following in the European developer community.

• 8,16,32,64-bit processor selection is curiously close in this survey between Europe and North America. It slightly trends in the lower bit range in Europe, (which is what we anticipated) though not as significantly as we had expected.

What percentage of the devices shipped by your company has?
(Percent of Respondents, N=357)

What software design methodology do you use in your embedded design?
(Percent of Respondents, N=448)

Europe (N=127)

What processor word-width is your current design based on?
(Percent of Respondents, N=451)

The Embedded Systems Industry Bulletin is published as part of VDC's Embedded Software Strategic Market Intelligence Program. Venture Development Corp. (VDC) has been providing embedded systems market intelligence for 20 years.

 
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