INTERVIEW-Microsoft to hike spending on Embedded

TOKYO, Nov 14 (Reuters) Microsoft Corp will spend million in 2007 on its ''Windows Embedded'' operating system for portable devices, up 33 percent from 2006, an executive at the world's largest software maker said on Wednesday.

Microsoft, which competes with operating systems like Java, Symbian OS, Palm OS and Linux-based systems, is eyeing demand to link digital cameras, TVs and car audio systems, Ilya Buckshteyn, director of Microsoft's Windows Embedded Marketing, told Reuters in an interview.

The company launched its latest version of its Windows Embedded CE 6.0 in PDA-hungry Japan on Wednesday, as makers test different operating systems that can run on tiny amounts of memory in a wide array of gadgets.

''It's too difficult to connect and too difficult to share -- it's easier to paste analog photos in an album and post it than it is to share digital photos,'' Buckshteyn said. ''We want to make that easy.'' Its latest Windows CE program would enable Web services, Voice Over IP calls and Internet browsing on appliances, he said.

Microsoft expects annual corporate sales growth for Windows Embedded to be about 25 percent through 2010 and consumer sales to grow about twice that much each year, he said.

REUTERS SLD