Wind River takes Android commercial

Embedded specialist Wind River has launched a validated version of Google's Android platform, bringing revenue generation to the open-source model. Android gets a lot of attention for being free, but most manufacturers would prefer to pay for their handset OS in exchange for support and improved capabilities, as well as …

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it worth mentioning?

Is it worth mentioning who owns Wind River these days?

And is it worth mentioning who's architecture is most likely to be used inside an Android box?

Anybody know?

[Wonko the Sane]

Yep

Intel owns Wind River. We presume support for Intel processors is forthcoming and support for ARM processors is outgoing.

[Gerard Krupa]

Embedded Java

Perhaps Wind River has the clout to create an uptake of embedded Java in a multitude of devices that Sun has so far failed to trigger.

[Anonymous Coward]

@AC

http://www.windriver.com/company/

Wind River became a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel(R) Corporation on July 17, 2009

[Anonymous Coward]

"If Wind River can't make money out of Android then it's unlikely anyone can"

"If Wind River can't make money out of Android then it's unlikely anyone can"

What, not even MontaVista?

[TimeMaster T]

Not suprising

This does not surprise me in the least.

This move is exactly what I would expect from the current management. WR laid off almost all of their really good programmers and developers back around 2003, the rest saw the writing on the wall and left. It became just a service/support company and they haven't had an innovative or original product in years. The last one that I can remember was vxWorks 5.5 and AE, after that its been repackaging open source products like linux and marketing them as its own.

How do I know? I was there when it happened.

The buy out by Intel was just another nail in the coffin. Intel will absorb the parts of WR that will benefit them and then dump the rest.

[ForthIsNotDead]

WindRiver==Fucked

Just like Psion was.

[AntonyE]

Probably NetBook / MID Focussed

I expect that WR will be focussing on the netbook / MID market, rather than smartphones, since that's where Intel are trying to expand.

The likes of HP, Dell, HTC, Foxconn, and even Samsung may well go for an Android / Intel reference design to get a netbook to market quickly and cheaply. But an Android / Intel reference design for a smartphone? Who's going to buy that? Intel is too expensive, power-hungry, and slow for a mobile phone (this includes atom).