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Dow Jones Business News
UPDATE: Sony,IBM Agreement May Hurt Microsoft's Windows CE
Tuesday July 1, 5:55 pm ET
By Tiffany Kary, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Microsoft Corp.'s effort to become the dominant
software provider for consumer electronics just hit a bump.
Sony Corp. , Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and six other overseas
tech giants are banding together to promote the development of a
competing software, Linux, for devices like cell phones, DVD players
and other gadgets. Hitachi Ltd. , NEC Corp. , Royal Philips
Electronics , Samsung Electronics Co. , Sharp Corp. and Toshiba Corp.
are the other companies.
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It's no small initiative. International Business Machines Corp.
(NYSE:IBM - News) has even signaled its intent to join the group,
called the CE Linux Forum, or CELF.
"This is a huge deal to Microsoft," Eric Raymond, president of the
Open Source Initiative, an agency that promotes the use of Linux,
said. "Margins on these devices are so thin that (these companies)
can't afford proprietary software licenses any more."
The move comes a little more than two months after Microsoft said it
would loosen licensing rules for the Windows CE software used to
control electronic gadgets - a drastic departure for the traditionally
protective software company. The step was seen as a response to the
growing market presence of Linux and other operating systems that can
be freely copied and modified.
Indeed, Linux is known as open source; it evolves as developers update
it. Though the software is nominally free, various companies such as
Red Hat and VA Software package the software and provide support.
The CE, or consumer electronics, version of the Windows operating
system runs on devices such as the Pocket PC, and generated $38
million in revenue in Microsoft's third quarter, up from $21 million
during the same time a year earlier, according to filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission (News - Websites). Microsoft's
total revenue for the third quarter this year was $7.84 billion, up
from $7.25 billion in last year's third quarter, according to Thomson
First Call (News - Websites).
Microsoft wasn't immediately available for comment.
Tim Bird, a senior engineer at Sony and co-chair of architecture for
CELF, said he couldn't comment on competition with Microsoft, or how
the use of Linux might affect margins.
Bird characterized the forum as a way to make Linux more agile for
consumer- electronic devices. Bird said though the software is already
used in many devices, and runs effectively, it can be improved upon in
several ways, such as shortening start-up and shut-down times.
"Start-up times of a few seconds are acceptable for computers, but not
on cell phones," said Bird.
Goals of the forum include getting those times below one second and
developing real-time capabilities for DVD players and other
audio-visual devices.
Bird said Linux has already made good headway in the
consumer-electronics space, primarily through Tivo Inc.'s
subscription-based television system, which runs on the Linux
platform.
Sony and Matsushita will each pay $16,000 towards the consortium, and
regular members will pay $4000 to join. The group plans to make source
code which has already been developed for consumer electronics
available to the public by the end of the summer.
Bird said the consortium doesn't have any agreements with Red Hat or
VA Software, but it has been in talks with companies that manage
embedded Linux. Bird couldn't name the companies, but listed the
Metroworks division of Motorola (MOT), Red Hat and private companies
such as Sunnyvale-based MontaVista Software Inc., Pittsburgh, PA-based
TimeSys and San Jose-based LynuxWorks as the type of companies it
could work with.
The agreement doesn't rule out the use of Microsoft's software among
CELF's members.
Sony will continue to use the Microsoft operating system on its VAIO
desktop and notebook computers, and use of Windows won't come to a
grinding halt despite the new emphasis on Linux, Bird said. Other
members of the consortium, like Toshiba, have licensing agreements
with Windows. In June, Toshiba said it would use Windows CE in its
retail information systems in Japan.
But analysts said the move presages a drive to develop "smarter," more
computer-like devices in the home, and that the device makers are
moving towards Linux because licensing Microsoft is too expensive to
make such devices in volume.
"If they're promoting the research, there's a longer roadmap here,"
said Ryan Jones, a senior analyst at technology research firm The
Yankee Group. "This dictates the way intelligent consumer electronics
will develop for the foreseeable future," he added.
The proliferation of Linux on consumer electronics could also threaten
Windows dominance overall.
"This threatens the whole influence of their operating system," said
Jones, explaining that the support of so many big names in consumer
electronics would encourage smaller software application developers to
work on the Linux platform.
And as consumer electronics become more complex, the dominance of the
PC is also challenged, Jones said.
"The PC is good for managing content and moving files around, but
consumers want to consume content in their living room or on the go,"
he added.
Microsoft has acknowledged threats to its Windows operating system,
particularly overseas, where countries like China look for cheaper
alternatives. Last year, Microsoft lost a bid to supply its Office
software to part of the Beijing government, with a locally developed
Linux product winning out.

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