Webconverger Limited came very close to exhibiting at a Kiosk conference in London earlier this month.
An ally Jake over at Tactile CRM gave me some good advice: "Don't exhibit at a conference you've never attended."
So I only attended KioskCom 2008 UK in Olympia London and saved the company 1000+GBP. :)
- Best designed exhibit goes to GWDMedia based in Sheffield
- Most impressive hardware had to be the massive Samsung touch panels
- Device that most surprised me was the WIFI kiosk
So this conference has quite a corporate feel to it. I attempted to seek out Linux based solutions though I found none. Kept on finding Windows Embedded everywhere. Oh no.
Webconverger's current price point of 100GBP makes it a hard sell. As Windows Embedded licenses I heard go for max 50GBP. Usually a lot cheaper as Microsoft is determined to keep its monopoly.
Most vendors there were hardware sellers, selling an assortment of kiosk hardware where of course Windows embedded has been tested with. Just getting hardware vendors to try Webconverger on their hardware seems difficult.
People tell they used to have stability/reliability problems with Windows Embedded, now it's less of a problem. So crikey, how can Webconverger compete?
Where is Windows weak? Naturally I thought security. I could argue that Webconverger has better security. Though after picking up a brochure on Windows Embedded, Microsoft do a very thorough job of getting across an albeit exaggerated "Trustworthy Computing" message across. Slick.
Microsoft also pitch Silverlight, Windows Presentation Foundation & Internet Explorer 7. It's quite a stack and they are also careful to assure customers their XP solution will be available till December 2016.
Whilst Microsoft has serious competition on the Desktop PC & Mobile (Apple&Android smackdown) platforms... I see the kiosk market being quite a challenge. Webconverger makes Linux Web kiosk deployments much easier than they used be and we at Webconverger will endeavour to make it even easier.
There is lots todo and we need your support and advice on feedback@webconverger.com. Webconverger is a free software project so please contribute your time and skills. Otherwise if you're a business looking for an alternative the Microsoft monopoly, please consider our Linux/Web based Windows Embedded competitor.