MS sees CE on much more than palmtops

Rather, the software Gargantua sees the operating system at the heart of a panoply of devices from embedded applications through cars, Web-enabled phones and WebTV sets, to cars.

"We haven't done a really good job of explaining that Windows CE is not only for the HPC (handheld personal computer)," said Jim Floyd, product manager for the handheld PC at Microsoft. "You'll see CE in devices more mobile than the HPC even. One of the hallmarks of CE is that Visual Basic, Visual Java, C++ developers can write to it; if you have the knowledge of one of those languages you can write CE applications."

Floyd said that the next version of WebTV will use embedded CE technology and added that there is already a thriving market for vertical applications, including wireless devices being given to Dow Jones, Goldman Sachs and other financial employees.