The market for commercial embedded mobile software exceeded $1.3 billion in 2008 and is expected to reach almost $2 billion by 2013, according to VDC Research.

 

Although the overall market for mobile handsets is slowing, the value of embedded software solutions is increasing because of data services and mobile Internet apps, says VDC Research.

 

Mobile operating system functionality and certain middleware functionality will continue to be commoditized due to the trend toward open source, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to provide differentiation in the middleware layer as well, VDC Research says. Open source projects like GTK and Webkit are disrupting the middleware layer, the research firm says.

 

Virtualization is a growing trend as well. Some 38 percent of respondents report they were currently using virtualized operating systems, compared to 60 percent for future projects.

 

As a result, operating systems are becoming decoupled from the hardware, allowing users to run multiple operating systems and increasing the power software vendors have in the ecosystem. Vendors that can provide uniform robust user experiences across platforms will have a chance to create brand loyalty, VDC Research argues.

 

Platforms to consume content on desktops and mobile devices also are becoming embedded software on devices.