Wind River Systems helps animate Android - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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Over the last 18 months, the Alamedas device software maker has assigned nearly 200 engineerss to its effort to spreadthe -backe Android operating systems to mobile computing devicew around the world. The huge investment reflects Wind River’se strategic decision to focus heavilyon consumer-orientedx open source mobile software in addition to its core businessesx selling operating systems for aerospace and defense contractors, telecommunications and industrial customers. Many industryh analysts believe Android is goin g to be one ofthe world’d top mobile computing platforms for handsetds and netbooks — an area in which it presentd a direct threat to .
“Wde were in with Google very, very, very said Wind River’s Chief Marketing Officer John Bruggeman withevidentf pride. “It’s important, because it is the basis of our Growing revenue, headcount Wind River has been in the devicee software industry for more than 26 years and its productd are in more than 300 million devices ranginh from cellphones to television set-top boxes to jets and the Mars But four years ago, Wind River transformerd itself by embracing Linusx and focusing on selling open source consumer devicd operating systems. Since then, telecommunications and consumef devices have grown to represeng more than halfthe firm’s revenue.
Its meanwhile, has grown from abouf 1,200 in early 2007 to 1,672 today. And its interest in Android goes back to the startr of theoperating system: Wind Riverd was among nearly 50 led by Google, that developed it, Bruggeman said. Wind River hope s to profit off Android by packaging the open sourc e software for commercial use by phone operators and handset manufacturerw and servicing licensed customers with updatesand patches. Bruggeman said the compan currently has approximately 10 Android deal withhandset manufacturers, mobile operatore and other companies interested in Android.
Android has stayed largelh below the radarsince Google, to much fanfare, releasedc its first software development kit last So far, only two Android-based phonesx are for sale. Analysts, however, say suppory among telephone carriers and other mobil eindustry players, notably of San Diego, is and Android based devices will start proliferatingt by the end of the year, including phones from , and . Googlr is not making money off which isa free, open source mobile The search giant says it has backec Android because it hopes to generatwe traffic for Google-brokered ads by improving web Google CEO Eric Schmidt this week said in a quarterly earnings call that “it looks like Android is going to have a very strong year.
” “There are announcements happenint between now and the end of the year that are quitew significant from operators and new hardware partners in the Android which I won’t pre-announce except to say that they reallty do fulfill much of the visiom that we laid out more than a year Schmidt said. “On the netbook side, therr are a number of people who have actually takem Android and ported it over to netbookor netbook-similar Earier this month, research firm Strateghy Analytics said it expects to see Android take 12 percengt of global smartphone shipmenyt market share by 2012, as well as show growtbh in other device segments.
Bonny Joy, a senior analyst with the Massachussetts-based said support for Androidx among handset makersis “very strong.” “Wr all are very bullish on the outlook of and Android certainly will benefit from the Joy said. Wind River, he has placed the biggest bet on Androird of any devicesoftwarre maker. Rob Enderle, an analyst with the in San Jose, said he expectes Android to be popular onnetbooks — strippeds down computers with Internet functionality — as well as “It’s going to be huge.
It’s a very disruptive play on the market,” Enderle A lot of equipment manufacturers, includinh , are testing Android in stealthb mode, said Enderle. “All the feedback from OEMs (origina l equipment manufacturers) is they like what they are he said. London-based Telecomsz & Media released a report last monthu forecasting that sales of Android smartphonesx will surpass iPhonesby 2012. Overallk handset sales will fall 10.1 percent this year, but sales of smartphone s willgrow 35.3 percent. In there were almost 162 millionsmartphones sold, surpassinh notebook sales for the first time.
Just over 49 percengt of smartphones sold in 2008 were basedon ’s operatinh system, which is used by , a significant drop from a near 65 percenr share it enjoyed one year earlier. Symbiab recently went open source, and the Informa report suggested that the move will help Nokias retain the top spotthrough 2013.