AACHEN, Germany, February 26 /PRNewswire/ --

- New regional development centre in Germany is part of US$75 million global investment by Windows Embedded Business.

Microsoft Corp today announced the launch of its first Microsoft Embedded Systems Development Centre (MESDC) in Aachen, Germany. The MESDC is part of Microsoft's effort to expand regional development centres in Denmark, France, Ireland, Serbia, the UK and other countries across Europe. The centre will support global product development and drive smart, connected, service-oriented device development.

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Located within the European Microsoft Innovation Centre (EMIC) in Aachen, the MESDC is a significant part of the US$75 million (US) global R&D investment that the Windows Embedded Business is making in Europe this fiscal year.

"Due to the immense engineering talent pool and high concentration of enterprise customers and key Windows Embedded partners in the region, we see tremendous growth opportunities for the Windows Embedded Business in Europe," said Kevin Dallas, general manager of the Windows Embedded Business at Microsoft. "In addition, the MESDC is a significant part of Microsoft's ongoing investment in research and development in the European Union. Our MESDC venture builds on our presence in Europe and further enables our dedicated partners to bring to market smart, connected, service-oriented devices."

The MESDC will support global product R&D, drive development of new and innovative features of Microsoft's embedded operating systems, and accelerate collaboration between the US-based Microsoft product groups and their counterparts in Europe. The MESDC will also support the needs of the active Windows Embedded customer and partner ecosystem in Europe by engaging with select members of this group to showcase high-visibility embedded systems projects that accelerate embedded development in the enterprise. Microsoft estimates that out of the 3 billion embedded devices shipping this year, about two-thirds of them will be connected to a network or management service. Microsoft expects the market for connected devices in the enterprise to grow at a rate of 23 per cent per year between 2006 and 2010.

"The MESDC will form an integral part of helping us recruit outstanding embedded systems engineers across Europe to perform product R&D, and the MESDC located in the EMIC in Aachen provides a very conducive environment for these engineers to spearhead incubation projects and accelerate technology transfer and collaborative efforts within Microsoft," said John LeFor, director of the European Microsoft Innovation Centre in Aachen.

Microsoft will start recruiting embedded systems engineers for the MESDC this month. The goal by the end of 2008 is to bring on board up to 15 engineers, who will work closely with the US Windows Embedded product development team based in Redmond, Washington.

Microsoft has a complete embedded product family that supports the extremely diverse needs of the embedded device market: Windows Embedded CE, Windows XP Embedded and Windows Embedded for Point of Service (WEPOS).

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realise their full potential.

About Microsoft EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa)

Microsoft has operated in EMEA since 1982. In the region Microsoft employs more than 16,000 people in over 64 subsidiaries, delivering products and services in more than 139 countries and territories.

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