Microsoft has never shunned away from costly investments into technology. Quite the opposite in fact, the Redmond company has even been criticized for its strategy to throw money at various problems in an attempt of solving them. For the Redmond company, technology innovations are just another item on the financial investment check list. And by no means does the Windows operating system make an exception to this rule. With a budget of over $7 billion going to its Research and Development efforts in 2007 alone, Microsoft is bound to continue investing in R&D throughout 2008. An illustrative example of this ongoing trend is the first Windows Embedded R&D Center in Europe. The new regional development center in Germany is but a small part of the $75 million global investment puzzle that is connected with the Windows Embedded Business.

"Due to the immense engineering talent pool and high concentration of enterprise customers and key Windows Embedded partners in the region, we see tremendous growth opportunities for the Windows Embedded Business in Europe. In addition, the MESDC is a significant part of Microsoft's ongoing investment in research and development in the European Union. Our MESDC venture builds on our presence in Europe and further enables our dedicated partners to bring to market smart, connected, service-oriented devices," revealed Kevin Dallas, general manager of the Windows Embedded Business at Microsoft.

The first Microsoft Embedded Systems Development Center (MESDC) was launched in Aachen, Germany, on February 26, 2008. The Redmond company is working to expand its regional development centers across various European countries including Denmark, France, Ireland, Serbia, the U.K. MESDC is integrated within the European Microsoft Innovation Center and will be focused on delivering support for global product R&D.

Not only this, but MESDC will also have the responsibility of building new and innovative features that will subsequently be implemented into Microsoft's embedded platforms, such as Windows Embedded CE, Windows XP Embedded and Windows Embedded for Point of Service (WEPOS). In this manner, the Redmond company wants an as-large-as-possible share of the embedded operating system market associated with the estimated 3 billion embedded devices that are forecast to ship in 2008 alone.

"The MESDC will form an integral part of helping us recruit outstanding embedded systems engineers across Europe to perform product R&D, and the MESDC located in the EMIC in Aachen provides a very conducive environment for these engineers to spearhead incubation projects and accelerate technology transfer and collaborative efforts within Microsoft," said John LeFor, director of the European Microsoft Innovation Center, in Aachen.