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Linux In Robots, Windows in Handhelds
savuporo writes "Robots.net is reporting that Linux-based robots are far more common than Windows-based robotics. Especially various Asian robot builders are increasingly selecting Linux and other open-source software as a basis for robot products and research. Linux is also gaining ground in other embedded applications like PDAs and mobile phones." That said, prostoalex writes "50% of all the PDAs sold in 2003 had Palm OS, while Windows family accounted for 37.7% of PDA market. In 2004 Microsoft is the leader of handheld OS market with 43% market share, followed by Palm OS with 36.3%."
I'm well aware that Microsoft make smartphone software. I have a lot of friends with smart phones (most of whom are windows users), but not one of them have a windows smartphone. The microsoft smartphones just don't have the market share.
Also, everyone I knew who had a PDA has ditched them in favour of a smartphone. It's true that the market is merging, but only in one direction - phones are eating the market of PDAs. Just look at the sales figures - this year's smartphone sales are set to be higher than all the PDA sales ever!
This post will enter the public domain 70 years after my death, unless Disney buys another extension.
So BeOS can be used to watch DivX movies ;) ;)
Probabbly the best use of a Pocket PC is the fact you can transcode some DVD to a DivX certified 'for portables' resolution and take your movies anywhere and watch them on the train commute etc
The Maslab Robotics Contest evaluated both Linux and Windows for our robots, and working with Windows was a real pain. Windows Embedded lacked the configurability and features we wanted, and full-blown XP was way too bloated and GUI-dependent.
We stuck with Linux even though it meant passing up potentially lucrative sponsorship.
"The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern." - Lord Acton
They all crash. My damned Treo 600 crashes every other day. That Palm logo doesn't show up when the phone is happy. I've even had the stupid thing hang hard when attempting to browse the Internet with it's shitty Blazer browser and the only fix was a hard reset which cleared all of the memory.
With the sales markup that's over 10$ increase in sales price.
Of course it depends on the product, but if the product costs less than $200, this will hurt profits quite a bit.
in quantity.
Yes, in quantity. But who guarantees that you will sell the product in that quantity? No one. So with Windows, you are forced to take more risk. And don't forget all the paperwork associated with licensing.
Linux isn't free either. You will likely need a RTLinux commercial distro to get anything of signifigance working.
Acutally I work on a power analyzer that runs 100% on freely available software, we use PicoGUI. Anyway, it depends a lot on what you do, but most Linux-developers don't use anything that causes royalties. It's quite common to use commercial development tools, but those don't cause any royalties on a per-unit basis, they are usually a one-time cost. Commercial support is also available, again with no effect on your per-unit costs.
Windows based smartphones account for around 3% of the market (Qtek and all). The leading player (I think it has 60% of the smartphone market) is Nokia. Nokia smartphones are all Symbian based. IMHO SonyEricsson is the third or the second, I can't remember the figures. (P900, P800 K700 and so on). I think they also use SYMBIAN OS.
If you have to pick up an environment for your applications. I would first consider J2ME MIDP 1.0 (you can easily port it to RIM) and Symbian C++.
Windows smartphones are a niche market.
Microsoft didn't innovate with Office. Excel was an extension of Lotus 123 (which was an extension of VisiCalc; see www.bricklin.com). Word was an extension of MacWrite, coded with assistance from Apple. Microsoft bought PowerPoint. And Outlook? (or is that LookOut!) Lots of mail systems to copy.
While the headline writer tries hard to infer that it's Linux, my money's on Symbian.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Palm OS 5 delivered the power of ARM processors, enabling much-sought-after functionality like music players, mapping software (i.e. on the Garmin iQue series), and it made many other applications (e.g. jpeg viewers) fast enough to be usable. All of this while maintaining the stripped-down, simple-to-use, elegant UI, and phenomenal backwards compatibility, considering the architecture and endianness changed. If there was one area that got overlooked, and was the UI library -- which frankly needs more widgets. (There are still no tree or tab controls, and the table control blows.)
Palm OS 6, on the other hand, was a radical departure from the simplicity and elegance, and an attempt to throw in everything and the kitchen sink. Much of this is a direct result of the reverse takeover by Be, Inc.
BeOS was a marvel on the desktop, albeit marketed poorly (in spectacular dot-com style). A handheld, however, needs BeOS like a fish needs a vacuum cleaner, and frankly, Palm OS licensee adoption of Palm OS 6 seems to reflect that.
You know, I think this is probably one of the more insightful comments I've seen on this thread, but I have to comment nonetheless.
:)
I agree that UI complexity is often a Microsoft sore point, but having recently bought myself a Microsoft Smartphone (Motorola MPx220) I have to say that this OS is definitely a significant step toward a simple but flexible UI.
While it's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, it's VERY simple to use if you're using it as a phone... which let's face it is what most people with a Smartphone are really going to be using it for. I had zero adjustment time in going from an archaic Samsung N400 to this MPx220, and that has to say something either about the simplicity of SP or my intelligence. Much as I like to believe the latter, I think the former is more likely
My point is that Microsoft has actually started to put some thought into their UI's, how they work and even if they're necessary. If you keep up with news coming out of Redmond then you'll know that there are running projects at MS that will give you an operating system without IE. That's the first step... and I happen to know that people are there actively working on OS's that have a Windows core but have an optional UI. This will provide more competition for Linux in the embedded space.
Now, I do have to say that the Smartphone devices can also be as complex as you want to make them. I've only started scratching the surface of this device regarding its functionality, but so far I can say that though GENERALLY it is very easy to use, there are some complex parts to the UI... some of it I consider needless but generally I think it's a well though out OS.
I think we'll see more Smartphones... they're a bit of a novelty right now, but I am already starting to see how this thing might still replace my aging PDA, especially as it provides the same functionality and flexibility for a ridiculously low price (when bought with a contract).
Yes, they've made a loss on Xbox (although I don't think it's as much as 4 billion), they don't expect to make a profit until the second or third generation. That's looking ahead.
That's also illegal, when done by a monopoly. It is illegal to use profits from a monopoly to fund predatory marketing.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.