<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none;" alt="" src="https://px.ads.linkedin.com/collect/?pid=1448210&amp;fmt=gif">
Free Research
ABI Research Blog | Admin (69)

Admin


Recent Posts

Visual Augmented Reality - Enterprise Security

Jan 14, 2012 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

0 Comments

At CES, I witnessed some interesting uses of visual augmented reality. Objects in a camera viewer were animated and overlayed onto the view of a tablet or smartphone. This type of AR could provide new ways for manufacturing and field services organizations to create and fix products.

But it also highlights how digitization of the enterprise also increases the threats. There is a lot of effort now in digitizing enterprise content to remove updating paper manuals. This digitization effort will eventually use more augmented reality technologies and applications. Once digitized, nefarious sorts could alter the digital information - such as install the wrongpart in an aircraft engine instead of another - you can imagine the consequences.

The question becomes how sophisticated are those inindustrial espionage​ to hack and alter visual information - images or even videos. My guess is that this would be hard and a hacker would rather simply alter text. Regardless, greater digitization offers more opportunities for security attacks. And it also highlights that some forms of digitization may be preferred over others to guard content and its potential alteration. Bottomline, AR provides new opportunities but will also introduce new challenges.

Read More

Scoopshot, AT&T Video Capture and Crowdsourced Journalism

Jan 10, 2012 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

0 Comments

​How journalism adapts to the digital era is one of this decade’s big questions. More and more of the content has to be real-time, constantly updated, and at the same time more or less everyone is covering more or less everything so differentiation is increasingly difficult. And yes, the money is tight.

With that in mind, let me introduce you to two mobile innovations that could benefit an agile news organization.They won’t singlehandedly rescue a struggling media house, but could well help it doing more for less money.

Scoopshot is a photo app to connect media and journalists with the app users who have original photographs about an event of interest. The users can contribute to stories and earn cash, while the media can generate richer, and more recent, visual content without much of an extra investment – and to a more engaged audience. Currently Scoopshot is specifically a photo app, but enabling support for crowdsourced video clips would be a very natural addition.

Another example is AT&T’s and its new Video Capture, a video-sharing service aimed at businesses. The most typical use case might involve e.g. a field engineer assigned to fix broken machinery asking for further instructions from a back-office expert, but it could be also used for instance by a journalist to deliver fresh video content from a live case without a camera crew. Although Video Capture has started off as an enterprise service, it wouldn’t be a huge stretch of imagination to extend it to consumer-to-business use. Besides equipping their own staff with it, media organizations could then also apply it to various crowdsourcing assignments to collect video material.

Having more advanced smartphones will mean higher-quality photo and video content, and having more extensive 4G networkswill mean that such content can be delivered on to someone else if not anytime, anywhere then at least most of the time, in most of the places. It’ll be then up to the media industry to createpractices to make most out ofthis new, and rather potent,source of citizen journalism.

Read More

Mindspeed acquisition of picoChip marks significant turning point for femtocell-era

Jan 9, 2012 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

0 Comments

Mindspeed’s $76.8m acquisition ofbaseband chipset maker picoChip is significant and marks the true transition from what could be called as the ‘femtocell-era’ into what is being referred to as the small cell revolution. 2011 was the year when the term ‘small cells’ emerged, mostly seen as an umbrella term under which femtocells, picocells, microcells and even Wi-Fi could be categorized. Small cells were the flavor of Mobile World Congress 2011, and are expected to gain further prominence in 2012. ‘Het Nets’ or heterogeneous networks have become commonplace terms referring to the use of disparate technologies including small cells, compact base stations and traditional macro cells to solve the growing imbalance of network capacity and smartphone/tablet driven data demand.

picoChip has been a pioneer in the femtocell space with close to 70% market share (ABI Research estimates) for HSPA/WCDMA femtocells in 2011. picoChip’s closest rival Percello was bought out by Broadcom in 2010, leaving picoChip as a suitable acquisition target. While the femtocell market (indoor residential and enterprise) continues to grow, albeit at a smaller pace than expected, picoChip has been looking beyond indoor femtocells launching solutions catering towards the metro/rural outdoor small cell space. Mindspeed has largely been focused on LTE outdoor small cells. In our latest report card for the 2011 femtocell market, we did point towards the growing segregation of the femtocell and small cell chipset markets, and the market being ripe for consolidation.

The coming together of Mindspeed and picoChip does re-emphasize the importance of small cells as a technology enabler in future networks, also points to the fact that companies like picoChip have grown beyond the femtocell sphere and are moving to the next level, which is the looking at the larger small cell opportunity. They now will be able to truly compete in size and scale with the likes of Texas Instruments and Freescale who are forging ahead in that space. Broadcom and Qualcomm, two of the other baseband chipset providers who are still seen as largely indoor femtocell focused need to pull their socks up if they are to successfully compete, especially around LTE outdoor small cells where majority of market activity is currently focused.

Read More

GSM handset market has reached its zenith

Jan 8, 2012 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

0 Comments

The era of the GSM handset have reached its zenith, as 3G and 4G handset sales have captured more than 50% of the total handset market. Not only that, year-on-year percentage growth for GSM drops to zero in 4Q-2011 and thereafter GSM handsets shipments are anticipated to go into decline.

It is very much an historic moment. It means not just mobile phone users in Developed Markets but also Emerging Market end-users are purchasing 3G handsets, 3G smartphones and connecting to the internet.

Read More

Lowe’s Joins Best Buy in Smart Home/Home Energy Market

Jan 5, 2012 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

0 Comments

As I mentioned in a recently-published Insight, 2011 saw a spate of well-documented forays into the home automation/home energy markets by service providers such as telcos, cable operators, security companies and more recently, utilities. However, today’s news that US home improvement giant, Lowe’s, will sell home automation kits from UK-based SaaS provider, AlertMe, shows that retailers are increasingly looking to enter this emerging marketplace.

Back in in September of last year, Best Buy launched home energy zones in three of its stores to demonstrate a home energy management technology from GE. The company also sells the Nest Learning Thermostat, which made the headlines the following month. However, the media frenzy that followed the officiallaunch has already whipped up considerable consumer interest causing the device to sell out.
Read More

The Durbin Effect - Contactless Payment Cards In The US

Jan 4, 2012 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

0 Comments

I wanted to take this opportunity to discuss the state of the contactless payment card market in the US and expand upon a recent insight authored by Group Director John Devlin – US Cap on Debit Fees Impacts Both Bank Card and NFC Markets.

From the latest market data which we collect from card and IC manufacturers, it has become apparent that 2011 contactless payment card shipments in the US have dramatically dropped when comparing against quarterly shipments achieved in 2010. The drop in shipments has primarily been driven by two overriding factors:

The Durbin amendment was passed in July 2011, capping interchange fees. As a result MasterCard and Visa responded, pulling their discretionary discounts allowed on low-value transactions, giving merchants no incentive for accepting cards for low value transactions, directly affects contactless payment cards.
As a result of an uncertain US economy many credit card companies dropped card promotions, which directly affected demand.
Any possible move to EMV (present or future) could see further hits to pure contactless numbers with banks potentially redirecting or deferring investment away from pure contactless cards in favour of dual interface chip cards offering both contact and contactless capabilities.
Falling shipments became apparent in Q2, before the Durban amendment was passed, but as a result of speculation surrounding the amendment and the state of the economy at the time. Many IC and smart card vendors thought this would be a short-term dip with a recovery expected in Q3. Q3 came and shipments remained lower than Q3 2010. Now deep into Q4 we can only speculate how final year shipments will compare and if any sort of recovery has taken place. ABI Research remains skeptical and believes the dip in shipments will continue into 2012 with a possible recovery being seen mid-year.
The US is the world’s largest payment cards market and any drop in shipments (even by a few percent) could mean millions in terms of units. The affect created by these two drivers are being watch very closely by both smart card and IC vendors and is a clear example of how a new or up and coming technology can be affected by legislation and a sensitive/recovering economy.
ABI Research’s Security & Identification Research Practice will be continually tracking and keeping a close eye on developments in the US payment cards market. Look out for an Insight in early Q1 where I hope to provide an update on shipments and any amended forecast data along with ABI Research’s view of the market and likely outcome.

Read More

Telematics has the Key to a New Market

Jan 4, 2012 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

0 Comments

​There are many new businesses popping up to facilitate car sharing. Some (e.g. Wheelz, RelayRides, Getaround) are designed to allow existing car owners to rent their own vehicles when they would otherwise be sitting idle.

Some OEMs are also involved in supplying what is effectively a new form of rental fleet. Mercedes-Benz has Car2Go; BMW has DriveNow; VW recently launched Quicar; Ford partnered with Zipcar on university campuses.

It seems like the start of a new business model that has the potential to change the nature of vehicle ownership. And all the above examples are reliant on telematics and smartphones to manage use and provide some security.

One company that tried to do it the old-fashioned way was HiGear. Sharing the cost of owning luxury cars is a great idea and proved very popular, but now professional car thieves have effectively forced the owners to close the business. For more details on this story click here.

Telematics is moving from nice-to-have to must-have in many areas, particularly in solving the range anxiety issue for electric vehicles, and it is now the backbone for a new business opportunity that in the long term may help provide an alternative solution for transportation within Smart Cities.

Read More

Gemalto Acquires SensorLogic

Dec 30, 2011 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

0 Comments

Gemalto, the world leader in digital security, today announced that it has acquired SensorLogic, a machine-to-machine (M2M) cloud-based platform vendor. Commenting on the transaction, Oliver Piou, Gemalto Chief Executive Officer noted: “With M2M, we continue to replicate our successful business model. Starting from advanced software embedded in a device, we add remote management and then application support to provide superior performance and differentiation to our customers.” Norbert Muhrer, Cinterion’s CEO, added “SensorLogic is a perfect fit for our M2M business. With SensorLogic, we are taking complexity out of M2M deployments thus clearly adding value to our clients”.

Founded in 2002, SensorLogic was an early pioneer in delivering a cloud-based, wireless, M2M service delivery platform to the market. Since its inception, the Company has remained exclusively focused on delivering platforms for M2M applications. Its scalable platform-as-a-service (Paas) software which powers a myriad of M2M applications is referred to as 'M2M 2.0'.
Gemalto, due to its leading position as a SIM card provider, has a strong presence in the “mainstream” cellular industry. M2M has been part of its ongoing plans to grow its footprint in the cellular communications market. This acquisition, alongside its 2010 purchase of Cinterion , should position Gemalto to offer an end-to-end M2M solution. Moving towards a platform strategy is a key move to gain a foothold in the M2M industry. One such case came about in early 2011 when Ericsson bought Telenor’s M2M platform , allowing Telenor to focus its attention to a service oriented strategy within the M2M markets.

A key point to note would be how Gemalto, leveraging on its strengths in security solutions, embed its expertise right up to the platform level. This comes at the back of growing prominence on security issues in the various M2M markets such as smart metering , mobile payments and telehealth in which security is vital for these verticals to flourish.
For additional information on the M2M eco-system, please refer to the variety of products in our M2M Research Service .

Read More

CPUC Home Area Network Mandate

Dec 30, 2011 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

0 Comments

In response to California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) mandate on a Home Area Network (HAN) Implementation Plan, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), a major Californian utility, has submitted its implementation plan in early December 2011 for review. The pilot deployment of 500 customers will use software from Silver Spring Networks (SSN) and home energy dashboards from Control4. PG&E’s plan will be rolled out in three phases - Initial Rollout Phase, Early Adopter Phase and Mass Market Phase.

The first “Initial Rollout Phase” will use 500 HAN devices provided to 500 volunteer and employee customers starting on March 1, 2012. If this first phase gains sufficient customer and vendor support through assessment of the customer experience and third-party market developments, PG&E will roll out its second stage, “Early Adopters Phase” in early 2013. This opens up potential participation to up to 5,000 customers who can purchase and register their own HAN devices from a multitude of third party vendors. Finally, if the Early Adopters Phase is successful and the third-party HAN device market has developed sufficiently to support broader deployment, PG&E will seek to open up its HAN platform to all third-party HAN devices that meet PG&E’s certification and registration standards beginning in 2014 (Mass Market Phase).

Although SSN and Control4 have been selected as partnering vendors for the initial phase, the mandate has also indicated that PG&E and its counterparts have to open their HAN platforms to all third-party HAN devices that meet the utilities’ certification and registration standards. As most devices in the market are still only SEP 1.0 compliant, the initial platform will be running on SEP 1.0 until later versions of SEP 1.1 and the eventual ratification of SEP 2.0 make it possible to run all platforms and devices at SEP 2.0. However, there is still uncertainty about how the standards and the market will evolve in the longer term, especially with regards to moving SEP 2.0 into an independent organization. In addition, more finalized versions of the SEP 2.0 specifications (0.9 and 1.0 versions) require successful interoperability testing among HAN devices from multiple vendors, which creates uncertainty around the timeframe for the finalized specification.

For additional information on the eco-system of WSN and Home Automation, please refer to the variety of products in our HAS Research Service and WSN Research Service .

Read More

A Strategic Acquisition - Linear Technology Acquires Dust Networks

Dec 30, 2011 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

0 Comments

On 20th December 2011, Linear Technology Corporation, a leader in high performance analog integrated circuits, announced the acquisition of Dust Networks, Inc., a leading provider of low power wireless sensor network (WSN) technology. With the growing importance of machine-to-machine (M2M) communications to enable remote data acquisition, low power wireless sensing is an emerging solution for many end-markets, including industrial process control, building automation and data center energy management.

Founded in 2002, Dust Networks is a pioneer in the field of wireless sensor networking. Using standards-based network technology, Dust’s broad portfolio includes SmartMesh IP, SmartMesh Industrial/WirelessHART™ and ZigBee. It also provides complete wireless systems solutions, including IEEE 802.15.4 mote modules, mote-on-chips and network and security management software and hardware. SmartMesh networks comprise a self-forming mesh of nodes, or “motes,” which collect and relay data, and a network manager that monitors and manages network performance and sends data to the host application. This technology is now the basis for a number of seminal networking standards. Linear Technology Corporation’s products provide an essential bridge between the analog world and the digital electronics used in industrial, communications, networking, automotive, computer, medical, instrumentation, military, aerospace, consumer end-markets and other harsh environment systems. Linear Technology produces power management, data conversion, signal conditioning, RF and interface ICs, and μModule subsystems.

Dust Networks has strong relationships with customers such as GE and Emerson, and green companies such as Vigilent and Streetline Networks. Its technology can be found in a variety of monitoring and control solutions, including data center energy management, renewable energy, remote monitoring, and transportation. If integrated well into Linear’s portfolio, Linear can offer a complete high performance WSN solution. Also, Dust Networks’ low power radio and software technology complements Linear’s strengths in industrial instrumentation, power management and energy harvesting technology.

ABI Research has published a report on Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks , outlining market trends in WSN within the industrial automation industry. For additional information on the WSN eco-system, please refer to the variety of products in our WSN Research Service .

Read More

Lists by Topic

see all

Posts by Topic

See all

Recent Posts