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    Home Latest News

      Microsofts CE Plans to Come at a Price

      By
      Peter Galli
      -
      April 14, 2003
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        Microsoft Corp. is opening up the source code for Windows CE as well as the rights to modify and ship the code in CE-based products. But that privilege will come at a cost for OEMs, vendors and systems integrators.

        The Redmond, Wash., software developer announced last week that it will retain the right to include any commercially used modifications made by Windows CE source code licensees in future versions of the operating system.

        The initiative, known as Windows CE Shared Source Premium Licensing Program—or CEP—builds on the Windows CE Shared Source Licensing Program and expands Microsofts Shared Source Initiative.

        CEP licensees will continue to pay Microsoft a royalty for every device they ship powered by Windows CE. In addition, Craig Mundie, chief technology officer for advanced strategies and policy at Microsoft, said any modifications made to the source code included in a shipping product will have to be sublicensed to Microsoft.

        In cases where developers have done value-added engineering around their products and have some intellectual property that is a “unique capability or differentiator,” Microsoft will guarantee not to include that technology in CE for a minimum of six months, Mundie said.

        Robert Proffitt, an embedded programming consultant in Boston, said some of his clients feel features should be added to the devices and not the operating system kernel.

        “We could simply just make our stuff an application and not an extension of the operating system,” Proffitt said.

        But one limitation in using the CE operating system is the cost. “Our products cost in the $100 range; a license fee of $15 in a device is heavy. If we wanted to use XP Embedded, the cost rises to $85 a device. They need to make it more affordable,” Proffitt said.

        Ken Dulaney, an analyst at Gartner Inc., in San Jose, Calif., said many OEMs want differentiation or will move to Linux. “This permits them to do unique things. But I dont think this will go all that far in the Pocket PC area because that is heavily enterprise- oriented where they want consistency in the hardware,” Dulaney said. “But it may do better in the Smartphone area where Microsoft needs to make more progress.”

        Additional reporting by Carmen Nobel

        Peter Galli
        Peter Galli has been a financial/technology reporter for 12 years at leading publications in South Africa, the UK and the US. He has been Investment Editor of South Africa's Business Day Newspaper, the sister publication of the Financial Times of London.He was also Group Financial Communications Manager for First National Bank, the second largest banking group in South Africa before moving on to become Executive News Editor of Business Report, the largest daily financial newspaper in South Africa, owned by the global Independent Newspapers group.He was responsible for a national reporting team of 20 based in four bureaus. He also edited and contributed to its weekly technology page, and launched a financial and technology radio service supplying daily news bulletins to the national broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation, which were then distributed to some 50 radio stations across the country.He was then transferred to San Francisco as Business Report's U.S. Correspondent to cover Silicon Valley, trade and finance between the US, Europe and emerging markets like South Africa. After serving that role for more than two years, he joined eWeek as a Senior Editor, covering software platforms in August 2000.He has comprehensively covered Microsoft and its Windows and .Net platforms, as well as the many legal challenges it has faced. He has also focused on Sun Microsystems and its Solaris operating environment, Java and Unix offerings. He covers developments in the open source community, particularly around the Linux kernel and the effects it will have on the enterprise.He has written extensively about new products for the Linux and Unix platforms, the development of open standards and critically looked at the potential Linux has to offer an alternative operating system and platform to Windows, .Net and Unix-based solutions like Solaris.His interviews with senior industry executives include Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Linus Torvalds, the original developer of the Linux operating system, Sun CEO Scot McNealy, and Bill Zeitler, a senior vice president at IBM.For numerous examples of his writing you can search under his name at the eWEEK Website at www.eweek.com.

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