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Mittwoch, 13. Mai 2009, 09:50
Zitat
[SIZE=3]Geos slims down, gets face-lift for smart phones[/SIZE]
By Rick Boyd-Merritt
ALAMEDA, Calif. -- Aiming to conquer a still-unproven emerging market, Geoworks Corp. disclosed last week that it has rewritten its flagship Geos systems software from the ground up as a smart-phone-centric operating system. Of the company's several licensees, only Mitsubishi--a newcomer to the Geoworks stable of partners--is initially announcing support for Geos-SC, saying it plans to release a family of smart phones for the Japan domestic market starting next year that will use the new operating system.
To some extent, the move marks a recognition that the 200-person Geoworks is no longer positioned to attack the broad class of digital consumer products--including PDAs, set-top boxes and networked office gear--its founders envisioned several years ago. Instead, the company is refocusing on a fairly narrow market for enhanced wireless phones and services, using Japan's gadget-loving domestic market as its initial point of entry.
High-volume market
"Several years ago, we were following a broad range of products, but over time we have become more focused on smart phones," said Gordon Mayer, Geoworks' chairman and chief executive officer. "We continue to believe smart phones are going to be the highest-volume, nearest-term market beyond the PC."
Besides being tweaked for the needs of smart phones, the new OS is more modular and leaner than the original Geos. It fits into as little as 256 kbytes of ROM and 50 kbytes of RAM and requires, at minimum, a 5-Mips CPU. That's about half the memory requirement of the former OS, opening the door to a class of enhanced cellphones that are more streamlined in data capabilities than full phone/handheld computer hybrids such as the Nokia 9000, which uses Geos and a 386-class processor. Rather than riding on an X86, Geos-SC has been ported to the Hitachi SH-3, ARM 710 and MIPS 3900 processors.
The 32-bit Geos-SC is entirely written in C++ and supports a DOS file system. But it is no longer itself based on a DOS kernel, as was Geos. A new 24-kbyte kernel, which supports multithreading and preemptive multitasking, could ride on top of a real-time OS, though its latencies have not been characterized for real-time operation.
The modular OS supports a variety of protocols and messaging types, such as PPP, TCP/IP, the GSM Short Messaging Service and proprietary e-mail protocols used by Japanese services such as Nifftyserve and 10-Yen. The OS is structured so that any application may access networking features, and messages can be routed between applications.
Geos-SC also comes with support for PersonalJava, bundling in a module that includes version 1.1.2 of the Java Virtual Machine and the full set of PersonalJava class libraries. A full-blown configuration of Geos-SC with support for Java could require more than 2 Mbytes of both RAM and ROM and a 15-Mips CPU, according to Don Reeves, vice president of engineering at Geoworks. The company is in the early stages of working with JavaSoft to develop a Java API for smart phones, he added.
Geoworks retained the flexible interface technology from its earlier OS in the new software, so that OEMs can customize the look-and-feel of their devices. Geoworks helps develop those custom interfaces now, but early next year it will ship a development kit for OEMs to do the work themselves. The company has also developed a range of applications to ship with Geos-SC, including a browser, phone and personal-information manager. "We want to make it very easy for our customers to build complete products," said Reeves.
Neatly positioned
The company's road map for the OS includes building in support for smart cards and command-and-control voice recognition--the latter likely licensed from a third party--next year.
The new focus on smart phones neatly positions tiny Geoworks out of the way of Microsoft Corp. as it moves Windows CE into the handheld-computer and digital set-top markets. A former Geos licensee, Hewlett-Packard Co., has switched to using only Windows CE in its handhelds, while set-top pioneer WebTV Networks has been acquired by Microsoft.
It is not clear if Geoworks, which hopes to break even in its next financial quarter, will be able to find a path to growth in Japan's smart-phone market. The company estimates 27 percent of Japan's population currently uses some wireless service, and average turnover in buying a new cell phone is 18 to 24 months. To make sure it captures whatever business emerges from this nascent market, Geoworks has been working both sides of the fence, tuning its OS for handset makers and developing applications software on Unix servers for wireless-service providers.
"Our strategy is to focus on the Japan domestic market and establish a beachhead there," said Deborah Dawson, vice president of corporate marketing at Geoworks. "Working with NTT DoCoMo [Japan's leading wireless-service provider] has really helped us get the attention of Japan's handset makers."
Geoworks has developed three wireless services to date: a wireless backup service, a proxy server to provide Web access to smart phones and software to provide a range of Internet-like data services to smart phones.
'Still nascent'
Nevertheless, Diana Hwang, a senior mobile-systems analyst at International Data Corp. (Framingham, Mass.), characterized the smart-phone market as "still extremely nascent." It's also a very competitive space, she said. Motorola has indicated plans to use its own smart-phone software, Samsung has shown smart phones using Windows CE and software from Unwired Planet (Redwood City, Calif.), and Philips has indicated plans to use the Epoc OS from Psion plc. For its part, Ericsson has developed for its cell phones a data add-on device that uses Windows CE.
To date, Geoworks has two smart-phone design-ins: the Toshiba Genio, which uses Japan's Personal Handyphone network, and the Nokia 9000, used with GSM networks in Europe and Asia and recently released for digital cellular networks in North America. The Ericsson system is priced as high as $850, including carrier subsidies, said Hwang.
Dieser Beitrag wurde bereits 3 mal editiert, zuletzt von »EPA« (13. Mai 2009, 10:30)
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