Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Embedded OS vendor Wind River Systems is no stranger to Android — it’s been in the Open Hardware Alliance from the start and we’ve seen prototype ‘droid hardware from the company in the past — but it looks like it’s taking it’s first official steps into Google’s great wide yonder in partnership with Kyocera to develop a commercial Android reference platform. The two companies are targeting handset manufacturers with their first effort, but it’s not totally crazy to expect a wide range of devices will eventually be based on this or similar designs — we’re hearing hints that Android will start showing up in other consumer devices in the next year, and it’s certainly a tempting open-source alternative to Windows CE for devices like GPS navigators. That would be a pretty massive shift for the industry — hopefully we’ll see the fruits of this partnership soon.

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Filed under: Home Entertainment, Transportation

While the world waits to see the first Android cellphone revealed in New York later today, others are hard at work extending the reach of the open-source OS beyond just handsets. John Bruggeman, chief marketing officer at Wind River Systems says, “We’re starting to see Android get designed in on devices that extend way beyond the phone–things that might go in the automobile or things that might go in the home.” Bruggeman then collects his wits and adds, “I don’t want to pre-announce any design wins, I think you’ll see them in 2009. I would be shocked if you didn’t.” Indeed. After all, Intel and Wind River (both Android Open Handset Alliance members) have been working on an open, Linux-based car-computing platform since at least May of this year — so a switch to Android would be an over-simplified snap. It certainly makes sense for the hardware independent — thanks to Java-based Dalvik virtual machine — OS, middleware, and apps to spread throughout a consumer electronics industry lacking a common develoment platform. Whether this occurs by Google’s design or just a happy by-product of Android’s momentum remains to be seen.

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