There is some angst being expressed around the recently announced reorganization of Microsoft in various segments of the embedded community. One item on msmobiles.com blamed the reorg on Longhorn being late and bemoaned the fact that the shakeup didn’t go deeper into the Windows Mobile management. Several of the outside consultants that have been involved with the embedded efforts at Microsoft are a bit concerned that the group will now be classified with the Xbox division.

There is good news and bad news in this for the embedded group at Microsoft. The good news is that Robbie Bach does seem to understand the CE (meaning Consumer Electronics, not Windows CE) market better than many that have been over the group in the past. Countering that is the bad news, which is the difficulty they will face being taken seriously by the business customers they are targeting in both embedded and their Mobile group. This could be a good time for Linux and other RTOS vendors to start raising some FUD of their own.

Larry Mittag