MontaVista wants to put Linux on your TV
Published: 08 Jan 2003 10:02 GMT
MontaVista Software will release on Thursday a version of Linux for consumer-electronics devices, as the company seeks to have its software used in everything from karaoke machines to high-end television sets.
MontaVista, whose software is used in personal video recorders from NEC and Sony, will also take advantage of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to announce that its software is used in a new Panasonic video phone sold to Japanese customers with high-speed Internet connections.
With hundreds of in-develop products using its software, MontaVista is succeeding in a market that hasn't been kind to some competitors. The Red Hat unit devoted to Linux for "embedded" computing devices, for example, has been punished by slower spending on the part of microprocessor companies, and the beleaguered Embedix (formerly Lineo) was acquired last month by Motorola subsidiary Metrowerks.
Linux began as a clone of Unix and found its initial stronghold in servers, powerful networked computers. Though Linux hasn't caught on widely in desktop and laptop computers, where Microsoft is dominant, companies including MontaVista, TimeSys, Red Hat, LynuxWorks and Motorola are trying adapt the software for the embedded computing market, which includes consumer-electronics products and devices as disparate as airplane radar and antilock-brake systems for cars.
Some companies have adapted Linux to higher-end consumer-electronics devices such as TiVo's personal video recorders or Hewlett-Packard's Digital Entertainment Center, which aren't far removed from regular PCs in terms of processing power. But MontaVista has customers fitting its software into some of the most tightly constrained spaces, such as the innards of cellphones.
"People are going to be pushing this down into very low-end devices," said Scott Hedrick, senior product marketing manager for MontaVista's consumer-electronics software.
"We have hundreds of products in development: mobile phones, advanced remote controls, high-definition televisions, telematics systems, musical instruments, karaoke machines, gaming machines," Hedrick said. "A lot of these are going to come out this year," including a Japanese mobile phone using high-speed 3G, or third generation, networks.
Analysts are bullish on the idea.
"One area we identify as a real opportunity for Linux is the consumer-electronics market," said Stephen Balacco, an analyst for embedded computing research firm Venture Development, which has been studying embedded Linux for two years. "We see it as really a very strong industry for Linux."
One of the chief attractions of Linux for consumer electronics is low price, Balacco said.
"It has reduced licensing costs," Balacco said, because embedded Linux companies typically don't require royalty payments for each unit of a product sold unless proprietary higher-level software such as Java is used. MontaVista charges for development tools that help companies select the software modules they need for their particular device, but it doesn't charge per-unit royalties.
MontaVista also sells a version of Linux for general-purpose devices, such as a high-speed printer from Canon, and another for networking devices. The company hopes the constant pressure to release new consumer electronics will make that product less susceptible to the economic dips that have afflicted the networking software.
"The top consumer-electronics companies need to continue to renew their products and add new features, or they might as well shut down their business and go home," Hedrick said. "They cannot give up on investing in and creating new products."
It's not hard to figure out why there are companies interested in the market. The Consumer Electronics Association projected on Tuesday that United States customers bought $96.2bn worth of consumer electronics in 2002, and the group projected US buyers will snap up $99.5bn worth this year.
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