One of the mistakes Microsoft made over and over again with its mobile products is that it tried to replicate the desktop experience on devices with screen 2-3 inches in diagonal. That’s not possible, it’s a fundamental mistake to take a desktop OS and fit it into low power hardware. It seems that they’ve finally realized this and now try and make things work as they should by announcing Windows Embedded Compact 7, a special OS designed for tablets. It’s got integration with Windows 7 but it’s not Windows 7. It comes with a lot of integrated features but lacks the possibility to run native Windows apps. Special apps need to be developed for Windows Embedded Compact 7.

    You can now download a trial version of Windows Embedded Compact 7 to test your products (hardware or software), but first maybe I should tell you a few things about this news OS, launched unofficially at Computex 2010 with the ASUS EEE Pad EP101TC, then announced by Microsoft today. So, here are some of the features of Windows Embedded Compact 7:

    • Silverlight for Windows Embedded – is a native code (C++) UI framework that enables the new designer/developer paradigm to dramatically improve the user interface on devices and the time & cost needed to deliver a differentiated experience
    • Internet Explorer Embedded - Internet Explorer feature enhancements like panning and zooming, Flash Lite 3.1 support, and a customizable application UI will dramatically improve the browsing experience you can deliver with the out of the box solution
    • Touch and Gestures - Touch/gesture input capabilities will enable natural user input to Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R3 devices to meet & exceed evolving end user expectations for user interaction
    • Media Player – Perform multiple actions beyond play, rewind, fast forward, pause, and stop. A new, powerful interface provides better web compatibility for Windows Embedded CE by supporting media player 7.0 OCX when browsing to sites
    • Connected Experiences – Seamlessly connect to Windows devices, PCs, servers, and online services to extend the power of your device and deliver a consistent experience across devices, PCs, and the web
    • Connectivity - Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R3 extends the capabilities of existing CE devices to easily get connected to a network or the internet and stay connected. Invariably devices have multiple methods of connecting either LAN, WiFi, GPRS, Bluetooth or USB. The Connection Manager makes developing connected applications much simpler with a single API to request a network connection. Also an application can subscribe to connection status events to help manage connection quality
    • Office and PDF Viewers - Integrated Office and PDF viewing capabilities will enable users of CE devices to access their important information through devices beyond the phone and the PC
    • Cellular Networks – Develop devices that can easily make data connections and initiate voice calls through cellular networks using Cellcore Voice components
    • Web Services on Devices API (WSDAPI) – Rapidly build Web services applications to interact with network-connected devices. WSDAPI delivers rich metadata exchange and messaging in addition to built-in support for discovery, security, and event handling. The Windows Vista operating system provides native support for Windows Rally through WSDAPI
    • Remote Desktop Protocol - Enable Windows Embedded CE-based thin clients to connect using the latest version of Windows Server remote computing technologies with the Remote Desktop Protocol

    Those are Microsoft’s words, not mine. I also have some official presentation clips from Microsoft:

    I don’t know about you but Windows Embedded Compact 7 doesn’t convince me one bit, maybe because it’s the successor of Windows CE. Or maybe because I like Android OS much better as a stripped down mobile OS with tens of thousands apps already available. This doesn’t mean you should dismiss Windows Embedded Compact 7 from start. Maybe Microsoft has some aces on its sleeves, but we’ll know for sure in Q4, when the platform will be released to manufacturing.

    Source: ArsTechnica