Device software today has become pervasive and strategic to the life and death of manufacturers. With consumers and businesses alike increasingly demanding smarter, feature-rich, connected devices, manufacturers of previously unconnected devices are incorporating software as a key driver of competitive advantage in next-generation products.

Witness Adidas. It's making running shoes with chips in them. In fact, its intelligent running shoes, which will hit markets in December, come complete with a microprocessor and battery-operated sensor to detect environmental changes and alter the shoe's physical properties to ensure peak performance by the runner. Who would have thought-a tennis shoe maker dealing with device software?

Witness the iPod. This connected and intelligent digital music player plugs into your PC, taps into the Internet and enables the consumer to download up to 10,000 songs and thousands of digital photos. It has displaced the Walkman and CD music players, catapulting it to a new level in the personal music device marketplace.

Car navigation systems, home appliances, pacemakers and robots-all these devices rely on increasingly complex and intelligent software for the features and functionality their end users demand. In fact, a mere 2 percent of the world's microprocessors go into traditional IT-PCs and servers. The other 98 percent go into the aforementioned devices.

Everyday manufacturers deal with increasing device software complexity, tighter market windows and spiraling costs. They face tremendous pressure to differentiate their products with higher levels of innovation, security and connectivity. A strategy and process to optimize device software development will ensure a company's sustainability.

With the advent of device software, every manufacturer and OEM is going to become a software company.

Ken Klein, President, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Wind River, Alameda, Calif.