Enea attended ESC this year because it was a high value show for us. We were part of the Light Reading ATCA Show co-located with ESC. So, for a reasonable cost, we got to be part of a micro show targeting one of our key markets (Communications) and be on the show floor and part of the horizontal embedded community. In addition, we launched our Enea OSE Multicore Edition RTOS (www.enea.com/ose) at the show and it was great to find a good cluster of editors in Boston.

As we look down the road to ESC San Jose, we are exited about the opportunity to be at both the Multicore Expo and the ESC - again value.

Chris Lanfear
Dir. Global Marcom
Enea

Wow! I've been on both sides of this issue for more than 30 years, both representing a vendor and as a volunteer to a variety of shows. I'd say that it's very likely that OS vendors have selected a different marketing strategy than the "saturate the world" approach that less-than-skillful marketing folk are want to try.

In today's market conditions companies must be significantly more selective about spending their sales and marketing dollars than when times were flush. But the alternative strategies are not exactly new. For more than twenty years, smaller software companies have sought out "co-marketing" opportunities with larger companies. By doing so they avoid the rather substantial expense of establishing their own individual presence while borrowing the booth owner's reputation.

There's really nothing like a software vendor showing up in a hardware company's booth. Both parties usually benefit. Besides, it gives company technologists a better opportunity to promote themselves and products by participating as a session speaker.

I agree with Carolyn. I think the lack of RTOS vendor presence tells you more about the conference that about the vendors. ESC Boston is a pretty small show, and lots of successful companies don't have booths there.

On the other hand, I think the second- and third-tier OS vendors have a tough fight ahead of them. We are in a period of industry consolidation, and I think the OS market is going to stratify between a few large players with growing market shares and many smaller players with shrinking shares. Some OS vendors will come out ahead in this shakeout, but many others will fall by the wayside.

Now just don't ask me to place bets on who the survivors will be...

Having a booth at the Embedded Systems Conference in Boston is not the measure of success within, or commitment to the embedded industry. Both Jean Labrosse and Christian Legare, Micrium's president and vice president, respectively, teach extremely successful RTOS, TCP/IP, and USB classes at Embedded Systems Conferences in both Boston and in Silicon Valley. This year was no exception.

I imagine that you walked the floor, and if so, should have noticed Micrium's substantial presence in the STMicroelectronics booth where, during exhibition hours, Micrium sold it's new book uC/OS-III The Real-Time Kernel, a joint effort between Micrium and its partner STMicroelectronics (See Micrium/STMicroelectronics raffle off new RTOS book at ESC
- http://www.embedded.com/escconference/219700313?_requestid=9197), demonstrated exercises from this new book, and was front and center in another demo on wireless connectivity with its partner ZeroG (See ZeroG and Micrium Deliver Wi-Fi to Embedded Designs - http://www.embedded.com/products/integratedcircuits/220100187?_requestid=10172). You might also have noticed that Micrium's partner Renesas made available the Micrium kernel and other services to qualified customers at no cost to the user (See Renesas and Micrium Offer Free Real-time Kernel and Specially Priced Middleware for 32-bit MCU - http://www.embedded.com/escconference/220100824?_requestid=9707). Finally, you missed Micrium's presence in the IAR booth, another one of its valued partners.

To say that Micrium is not marketing its RTOS is amazing in that the company's marketing programs have expanded substantially during 2009, with a substantial impact on Micrium's success.

Micrium has not veered from its mission to deliver the best in embedded kernels and RTOS family possible to the industry. It has not gotten sidetracked by trendy bandwagons such as security, and in the same TechInsights survey you quote, it seems to have "eaten the lunch" of most other vendors when it comes to being chosen by the engineers it targets, moving up in the ranks annually.

Micrium always has a presence in Boston and has always been and will be committed to the conference. Boston, however, is a relatively small show at which Micrium has never had a booth. While the absence of RTOS vendors from the Silicon Valley show would indeed be cause for alarm, the small number of booths at Boston is simply par for the course.