The “intelligent connected device” will be the next hotbed of innovation and growth in the technology sector — revolutionizing markets as they exist today, according to embedded operating system market leader Wind River. Chairman and CEO Ken Klein predicts a major shift in device software, and says that companies not actively building connectivity and intelligence into their products today will not survive past the next wave of technology innovation and growth.
Whenever a new embedded market opens we see this rant. The same thing happened with the advent of flash-based digital set top boxes when they first arrived on the market – and many other devices. Hardware costs drop and the goal of more into less always applies. Eventually the smaller devices will have a full OS and greater capabilities (DVRs and Media Center systems prove this point for TV — Tablet PCs prove it vs. WinCE HPC).
The real truth is that embedded systems companies have a limited time window to tap this new market, and they too will be shaken up because many new players will enter this market. And given that linux and *bsd’s can be rapidly massaged onto new hardware, they may be the ones sweating it the most.
to the principle: yes, “intelligent connected devices” will be a major wave. but ultimately that description belongs to the old paradigm of computing as a series of discrete interconnected devices.
the evolution is when users start to loose distinctino between their devices, when everything is simply another appendage to the greater distributed computing network.
can you say single system image? *cough DragonFly BSD*