| Windows CE rings up feature phones |
Nov. 18, 2005
 Intrinsyc Software is shipping a preview of what it claims is the world's first Windows CE based feature-phone software platform. Feature phones represent a large and rapidly growing mobile phone market segment that is unserved by Windows Mobile, but hotly contested by embedded Linux.
(Click for slightly larger view of emulated feature-phone menu)
A preliminary software development kit (SDK) is being supplied to a "select group" of customers to gain final feedback prior to shipping the full product release next year. The SDK comprises all of the software development tools and licensable software components necessary to build feature-phones based on Windows CE 5.0, according to the company.
Feature-phones -- a large and growing market
While there is no standard definition for "feature-phone," the term generally applies to mid-range mobile phones that include features such as color screens, cameras, text and photo messaging, digital music, video streaming, and games.
Strategy Analytics recently estimated that feature-phones will account for around 50 percent of some 725 million mobile phone shipments this year, while smartphones will represent just six percent. The market research firm's projections for growth among the major mobile phone categories appears in the chart below. As can be seen, feature-phones are forecast to be the largest mobile phone category by (or before) 2010.
Despite the fact that feature-phones are expected by analysts to continue to ship in much higher volumes than high-end smartphones for at least five years, Microsoft remains resolutely focused on the higher-end devices with its Windows Mobile smartphone operating system.
It appears likely that Microsoft maintains this stance based on a conviction that smartphones will eventually dominate the market, combined with an expectation of higher profit margins for the more sophisticated software required by the devices. In comparison with feature-phones, smartphones offer tighter integration with enterprise databases, push email, business applications, and web services, making them much more valuable components of an end-to-end Microsoft software play.
Intrinsyc's feature-phone platform aims to fill the resulting gap in Windows Embedded support for mobile phones -- a market segment currently being targeted by a number of embedded Linux software providers including Trolltech, MontaVista, PalmSource, and Wind River. Additionally, a multivendor Linux Phone Standards consortium focused initially on feature-phones launched earlier this week.
Leveraging Windows CE
Paul Yao, a product manager with Intrinsyc, emphasizes that Intrinsyc's feature-phone software platform is intended to be complimentary to -- not competitive with -- Microsoft's Windows Mobile smartphone software stack. Since Intrinsyc's feature-phone stack is based on Microsoft's Windows CE operating system, Intrinsyc feature-phone design wins will benefit Microsoft by making it possible for phone makers and wireless operators to offer a broader range of phones based on Microsoft OSes.
Intrinsyc VP of Mobile Software Products, Randy Kath, added, "By basing our platform on Microsoft's Windows CE operating system and tools, our partners and customers are able to leverage their Windows Mobile-based Smartphone development towards the higher volume and more cost sensitive feature phone market, and vice-versa."
The company also notes that Windows CE shared source can be used to optimize and differentiate devices built using its feature-phone SDK. "Microsoft ships a portion of the OS source code in Platform Builder, available with a simple click-through license," Intrinsyc explains.
The company adds: "Unlike the Linux 'copy-left' licensing scheme, such changes to the Windows CE core do not have to be shared with Microsoft or with anyone else, [which] means that a company can enhance the operating system core and keep it private as part of its unique value-added support for its customers."
Intrinsyc's feature-phone SDK
Intrinsyc says that it has integrated its feature-phone stack with Microsoft's "great developer tools," including Platform Builder, for platform development, and Visual Studio 2005, for application development. The tools and supplied software allow device makers to customize their devices' branding and "user experience," according to the company.
Intrinsyc's Windows CE-based feature-phone stack architecture
(Click image for larger view)
 | Intrinsyc's feature-phone emulator
(Click to enlarge) | Platform Builder is used to develop the device's basic software platform. "Simple drag-and-drop operations" allow adding, changing, and deleting both Windows CE components and feature-phone components, the company explains. Additionally, an Intrinsyc-customized simulation tool lets developers simulate the end phone's design prior to when the underlying hardware is finalized, the company says.
Visual Studio 2005 is used to develop applications, which can take advantage of the standard Windows CE API (application programming interface), Intrinsyc says. Visual Studio's "rich coding and debugging support [help's them] quickly and efficiently develop and debug" their software. The software can be tested using either a customized feature phone emulator or on actual hardware, the company adds.
The feature-phone software platform is configured using Microsoft's familiar Platform Builder tool
(Click image to enlarge)
Intrinsyc supplies the feature-phone SDK as part of Technology Transfer Kits (TTKs) that support selected hardware reference designs. Each TTK comprises a Windows CE 5.0 BSP, device drivers, application software, the feature-phone SDK, a Test Kit (TK), and "relevant third-party software."
The SDK includes mobile phone-related software components for functions such as telephony management, multimedia, messaging, security, and power management. Also included in the kit are user applications for dialer, contacts, call history, SMS, settings, tools, and more, Intrinsyc says.
Other TTK deliverables include: - C++ class library
- Standard files, such as headers, libraries, etc.
- Emulator support
- Documentation
- Sample application source code
Availability
Intrinsyc says it is currently supplying its feature-phone SDK to a select group of silicon vendors, OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), ODMs (original design manufacturers), ISVs (independent software vendors), and network operators, "to gain final feedback prior to shipping the full product release in 2006."
The company declined to disclose TTK pricing or per-unit royalty rates for its software components. However, Microsoft's "Windows CE core," which forms the basis of the feature-phone platform, is known to be available in the range of around $3, in OEM quantities.
Last month, Intrinsyc announced $8 million in financing, which it said would allow it to accelerate the development of its Windows CE feature-phone software stack. The company recently stated that its fiscal 2005 year revenue was $17.5 million, up 16 percent increase from fiscal 2004.
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