Wind River Blog Network

BMW wants to go open

By Doug Schaefer

Ian Skerrett, our fine director of Marketing at the Eclipse Foundation, pointed out this article from MotorAuthority.com. BMW apparently is feeling out the market to see if there is an appetite by tier one manufacturers to work together on an open source stack for in-car infotainment systems.

The concept BMW has in mind reminds me a lot of Google's Android who just recently released all the source to the Android platform for cell phones. Android is Google's attempt to open up the software stack for much the same reason BMW wants it for automotive, to ensure leading edge software applications can be built for those platforms with minimal obstacles. We'll see how well the master plan works, but I like the concept.

Continue Reading ››

Who's leading anyway?

By Doug Schaefer

The LinuxHater linked off to Christopher Blizzard's (from OLPC fame and now at Mozilla) blog on the current state of affairs with the GNOME project. He gives some very eye opening insight into what's happening there and the potential future directions for GNOME, GTK, and friends. It's not pretty, literally.

GNOME is getting big in the mobile space, or at least the number of contributors from that space is starting to dominate the GNOME project. And as we all know in the open source world, the contributors are the leaders and get to make the decisions. What this likely means and what blizzard is afraid of is that the GNOME desktop is not going to get the attention it needs to compete with the modern interfaces it competes with. The commercial interest just isn't there to make it happen like it is with GNOME mobile.

Continue Reading ››

Mobile Broadband dongles find success in UK

By Paul Tingey

There seems to have many news stories about the imminent rise of 3G technology in the UK over the last few years. Looking back these stories would seem to have heralded repeated false dawns with 3G being relegated to little more than another mobile voice calling technology. However we now seem to have positive proof that 3G based mobile broadband is becoming a viable alternative to (or addition to) more traditional broadband technologies for UK users.

In a blog entry titled Mobile net takes off, Rory Cellan-Jones of the BBC includes what he describes as "an extraordinary graph" showing how the amount of data crossing the 3 mobile operator's 3G network has increased 14 fold in just six months.

Continue Reading ››

The Emergence of the Femtocell

By Paul Tingey

Amongst all the news (and some would say hype) about Fixed Mobile Convergence, there is another market dynamic being played out which may lead to an alternative form of change. Fixed-to-Mobile Substitution (or FMS) aims to increase the proportion of calls made from traditional 2G/3G mobile handsets at the expense of those made from other devices such as fixed lines or dual-mode (or converged) handsets.

In reality this is a trend started by consumers themselves who, attracted by falling mobile call rates, have begun to use their mobile phones for all their voice calls whether they are outside of or within their homes. This substitution effect is most noticeable (for fixed line operators) amongst new users (i.e. in new households) who are often opting not to have a fixed line phone installed at all.

Continue Reading ››

Why Integrity Customers Get Free Support from Wind River

By Warren Kurisu

Previously, our CMO John Bruggeman blogged  about the importance of Service  and Support for Linux.  He called it the killer app for Linux.

We recently announced our new VxWorks and Wind River Linux platforms, which integrate the Wind River Advanced Networking Technologies.  This technology portfolio is a best-of-breed combination of technologies developed by Wind River and those acquired from Interpeak.  That is great news for VxWorks and Wind River Linux customers, but what about Interpeak customers using Integrity?

Continue Reading ››

Fixed Mobile Convergence : Evolution or Revolution ?

By Paul Tingey

The last couple of months have seen a flurry of reports on the subject of the future prospects for Fixed Mobile Convergence (from, for example, Pyramid Research and IDC) which has, in turn, spawned a flurry of web articles and blog comment on the same subject. The consensus among most of these reports is that Fixed Mobile Convergence (or FMC) adoption is set to grow over the next few years and that those companies who are investing in it are, in the main, investing wisely.

However, how users (or should that be prospective users) view the move towards FMC is more difficult to judge. In an article on Computing.co.uk, a research Director from IDC describes how their recent report outlines their view that operators (at least in Western Europe) are finding it difficult to sign up customers to FMC services.

Continue Reading ››

Fixed Mobile Convergence, Episode Two : The Human Factor

By Paul Tingey

In Episode One in this series of posts I outlined my thoughts on what Fixed Mobile Convergence is and how it defines the future of communications. FMC is occupying the minds (and development cycles) of most of the worlds largest telecoms companies. However, it is not such a hot topic amongst consumers which raises an interesting question; will consumers really be that bothered about FMC ?

Recent years have seen consumers demanding higher functionality and improved mobility from modern mobile communications and entertainment devices. The telecoms industry has been quick to respond with devices such as the Blackberry Pearl and the recently released (and very funky) Apple iPhone. These are the kind of devices which consumers seem keen to spend their hard earned money on. At the same time few aspire to buy the latest fixed line phone.

Continue Reading ››

RDC in China

By Tomas Evensen

I just came back from a couple of weeks in China. Fascinating country. Besides the usual customer visits, we also held three Regional Development Conferences (RDCs) in Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing.

The RDCs were a huge success with on average more than 400 attendees per day. And they were all very interested in hearing about Wind River's latest offerings and future plans.

How do I know they all were interested? Well, my leading indicator was that all seats were taken from the front working towards the back. Somewhat different from your typical American or European conference, where the back seats seem to be the hottest commodity. (BTW, I am of course not indicating that our American and European friends are not interested... Perhaps they have better eye sight).

Continue Reading ››

Fixed Mobile Convergence, Episode One : Please mind the step !

By Paul Tingey

Glenn Seiler's recent post (Report from the International Telecommunications Union Conference) gave readers an interesting insight into developments in the world of Fixed Mobile Convergence. As Glenn points out, FMC attempts to "enrich our every-day lives by making it easier to do the things we value most". Essentially FMC is about making technology work the way we want it to rather than leaving us struggling simply to make it work.

However, the reality is that FMC will only be realized in small steps. Like a baby finding its feet for the first time, some steps will seem bold and assured while others will seem uncoordinated and divergent. I thought in this post I would outline my thoughts about the first faltering steps along the path to Fixed Mobile Convergence.

Continue Reading ››

Report from the International Telecommunications Union Conference

By Glenn Seiler

I’ve been in Hong Kong the last week visiting the ITU Telecom World 2006. The theme of this show, as articulated by a keynote speech from Vivian Reding, the European Union commissioner for Information Society and Media, is “Living in the Digital World”.  The fact that someone from the EU was giving the keynote at a Telecom show in Asia shows just how international this trade-show is. There are pavilions from nearly every major country, with Telecom providers from each country showing how they are bringing to their markets new Fixed Mobile Convergence services such as VoIP to cell phones.

As with any large trade-show – and this show is one of the largest – it’s a little overwhelming. There are so many vendors all trying to get their message heard above the others. There are ten halls of vendors with everything that has anything to do with telecommunications – from coaxial cable vendors with cable as big as my arm (for FTTP – Fiber-to-the-Premise) to consumer electronics. It is the latter of course that drew my attention. It was hard to escape the hype around triple play. Not just to the home or office, but to the phone itself.

Continue Reading ››