Windows Embedded OS Roadmap

The latest Windows CE release illustrates that Microsoft’s embedded OSs are maturing, and although the general embedded market remains important to Microsoft, future releases will target specific device markets by adding a few key technologies. Microsoft’s embedded strategy has always focused on making it easy for developers to get small, connected, non-PC devices to market quickly. Microsoft’s embedded OS roadmap shows this strategy is being refined to help customers target specific device markets, but some might still struggle over whether to start with an embedded OS (Windows CE .NET or XP Embedded) or a reference platform (Pocket PC or Windows-Powered Smartphone).

There are three key Windows embedded products:

• Windows CE (CE), which is a real-time, small-footprint version of Windows designed from scratch as an embedded OS that allows developers to create a variety of non-PC devices running on numerous different processor types
• Windows XP Embedded (XPe), which is a version of Windows