Microsoft headed to New York in the hopes of making a splash at the annual trade show gala for retailers. Datamation has the story on the company’s plans to court the retail segment with a Windows 7-based digital signage product and other services.
Microsoft kicked off its attendance at the National Retail Federation (NRF) Annual Convention & Expo in New York this week by introducing a digital signage solution based on Windows Embedded Standard 2011, as well as an edition of its Dynamics AX ERP (enterprise resource planning) package designed for the retail sector.
Windows Embedded Standard 2011 is a Windows 7-based release of Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) embedded operating system which runs on 2010 Intel Core i7 processor technology. The proof-of-concept demo has been optimized to support digital signs in a retail setting.
“The optimized platform simplifies development, helping to lower the total cost of ownership [and] enables digital signage device-makers to focus on creating rich, connected user experiences that can be managed remotely and deployed anywhere from quick service restaurants and airports to hotels, cruise ships and retail stores,” Kevin Dallas, general manager of the Windows Embedded Business Unit at Microsoft, said in an online statement Monday.
Among the optimized features in Embedded Standard 2011 are support for panning and zoom, touch and gesture input, video analytics for measuring campaign effectiveness, remote deployment and management, and power management capabilities.
