BP Deal to Fuel Online Ads.

Oil giant BP Amoco is to roll out internet-enabled gasoline pumps featuring Microsoft Corp's Windows CE operating system under a three-year deal with pump supplier, Tockheim Corp. The deal is a coup for Micro soft, whose Windows CE compact operating system is struggling to emulate the dominance of Windows on the desktop in the embedded system and handheld device space.

It vindicates Microsoft?s strategy of linking Windows CE to the corporate-level Windows NT operating system. BP executives said they opted for Windows CE because of its compatibility with the NT software already installed in convenience stores at around half of BP's 900 US gas stations. Many of BP?s retail systems were developed by point of sale terminal manufacturer Radiant Systems Inc, which is co-developing the new pumps with Tockheim.

Ironically, Microsoft internet-rival, America Online Inc, invested $10m for a 4% stake in Alpharetta, Georgia-based Radiant, earlier this month. In addition to the equity stake, AOL said at the time it would sink more than $10m into a joint venture with the company to develop technology allowing users to access AOL?s online service from Radiant terminals.

The deal is part of the internet service provider?s "AOL Anywhere" strategy to penetrate beyond PCs into emerging appliances like TV set-top boxes, hand-held computers and mobile phones. AOL isn?t involved in the BP deal but Radiant is developing a new touch screen for fuel pumps that will allow AOL users to surf the net while filling their tanks at the forecourt.

BP hopes to reap savings from the new pumps because the technology will make them easier to manage. Designing the pumps to run like PCs on a corporate network makes it easier and cheaper to add peripheral devices like scanners, for instance, to cope with bar coded receipts for gas discounts which are offered to loyal shoppers by many US discount stores.

Gray Taylor, Tockheim?s director of strategic programs said the venture would generate advertising revenue because of the high exposure companies would get. With the average pump serving 70 people a day an advertisement on 100,000 pumps could reach 7 million customers, Taylor conjectured. Tockheim heralded the deal as the biggest revolution in gas station technology since the advent of pay-at-the-pump systems about 15 years ago.