devices such as PDAs and Smartphones.
Sales Projections, in Millions of Units
| | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2006 | 2008 | 2010 |
| Worldwide | | | | | | |
| Windows PCs | 126 | 135-138 | 145-150 | 170-175 | 190-200 | 215-225 |
| Windows CE Devices | 9 | 14-17 | 30-35 | 105-115 | 200-220 | 300-340 |
| USA | | | | | | |
| Windows PCs | 41 | 42-44 | 45-47 | 49-52 | 52-55 | 55-60 |
| Windows CE Devices | 3 | 4-5 | 6-8 | 19-22 | 35-40 | 55-60 |
(Source: eTForecasts, April 2003)Increasingly smart devices"Computer hardware and software platforms have started to invade many electronics device categories and will become the preferred system architecture for an increasing portion of electronic devices," noted the report's author, Dr. Egil Juliussen. "Only the simplest devices with fixed functionality will avoid this trend."
"Microsoft is taking advantage of the inevitable penetration of microprocessors and embedded software platforms into all electronics devices", Juliussen continued. "It is not a question if this will happen, but a question of when it will happen for each device category."
Mainly a two-horse race"Most Windows CE platform competitors only compete in a single or a few product segments," explained Juliussen. "Only software platforms using embedded Linux versions are competing [with Microsoft] across the board. Even though embedded Linux is behind Windows CE in most segments, the long-term battle will be between these two software platforms."
"The only exception is handheld device categories where Palm and Symbian are the strongest competitors to Microsoft's Pocket PC," Juliussen added.
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