Quote: Originally Posted by
NSFW 
That right there says this is based on Windows CE. The regular Windows that we all run at home does not run on ARM or SH, and probably never will.
I wouldn't say never. NT is very portable by design and has run on a number of platforms over the years:
Intel i860 (initial development only)
MIPS (initial development through NT 4.0)
PC compatible x86 (NT 3.1 through Windows 7)
Alpha (NT 3.1 through Windows 2000 RC2)
PowerPC (NT 3.51 through NT 4.0)
Clipper (NT 3.51, never publicly released)
SPARC (NT 3.51, never publicly released)
Intel IA-64 (Windows 2000 through current)
AMD x86-64 (Windows XP through current)
Just because it doesn't currently run on platform X doesn't mean it won't to fit Microsoft's business needs in the future. Both Xboxes are great examples of that, with the original running a heavily stripped out NT5-based kernel on x86 and the 360 running an evolved version of that on a triple-core PowerPC. With that out of the way, given the platforms mentioned CE is the obvious choice. It already runs on those three today and is in use in that type of device today, so why reinvent the wheel?
I agree that it probably won't be explicitly designed to run third party applications, but I wouldn't be surprised if it can. The Pioneer AVIC F-series devices run a CE-based OS and can be fairly easily modified to boot normal CE apps. People have them running TomTom, Garmin, and a more up-to-date version of the original nav program (I think iGo) with just a SD card and some time. Programming for it is supposed to be similar to a normal Windows environment and emulators are everywhere for development, so if a decent hardware platform came out I don't think it would take incredibly long for the community to get up to speed.