14 DAY TRIAL // On Thursday, Motorola held a launch event for its ES400 enterprise digital assistant (EDA) running under Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.5.3 operating system, where the Redmond-based software giant announced the upcoming launch of a new operating system, dubbed Windows Embedded Handheld. According to the software giant, this represents its latest move in an attempt to offer further support for customers in the enterprise segment of the market.
Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO, stated during the event that the company plans on making a series of key investments in the enterprise handheld device market, and that the Windows Embedded Handheld brand is only one of them. “These releases will provide proven management and security functionality, while giving customers confidence that investments in handheld enterprise devices and line-of-business applications will be protected over time by an extended support life cycle,” Ballmer said.
Windows Embedded Handheld is expected to arrive on the market as a new operating system aimed mainly at meeting the needs of business customers in certain key line-of-business (LOB) scenarios. Moreover, the solution should help mobile enterprise work forces enhance productivity though offering access to needed information at all times. 2011 should prove a great year for the platform, as appealing devices based on it are expected to land on shelves at that time.
As per Microsoft, the new Windows Embedded Handheld brand will emerge into the wild as built on the Windows Mobile 6.5 platform. The solution should boast a nice range of trusted management and security features, in addition to improved protection for enterprise investments in LOB applications on devices. Moreover, another Windows Embedded Handheld platform should arrive in the second half of 2011, one that would be based on the upcoming Windows Phone 7 OS, Microsoft added.
With the fresh platform, OEMs should be able to come up with new, innovative enterprise handheld devices. The functionality of these devices is expected to be greatly expanded, while key LOB applications should benefit from enhancements too. Rich, immersive user experiences delivered via touch or gesture response, in addition to improved connectivity with computers, servers and enterprise services based on Windows, are other features expected to arrive on enterprise handheld devices.