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ABI Research Blog (106)

Smart Grid’s Impact on Buildings and Energy Efficiency

Jul 11, 2011 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

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A smart grid is designed to achieve greater energy savings than existing grid infrastructure, thereby making the smart grid infrastructure more cost-effective. A key aspect of the smart grid is that it relies on two way communication technology to manage energy supply and demand dynamics and at present, an eco-system is evolving from the smart grid and adjacent markets. Buildings are one adjacent market that is part of the smart grid landscape. Based on data from the Energy Information Administration 2009, buildings are responsible for over 70 percent of electricity consumption in the US – approximately 50/50 split between commercial and residential buildings. This is evidence that potential energy savings can be achieved with a focus on building energy efficiency (EE).
The relationship between a building and the smart grid revolves around a developing market called Demand Response (DR), a form of EE. This is a market whereby intermediary companies incentivize building owners or occupiers to enable their properties to be connected and controlled for demand response. One example is EnerNOC, which targets commercial, institutional, and industrial organizations with its energy management offerings. Key among these is DR: in return for reduced energy charges, EnerNOC customers allow the company to remotely manage and control their energy consumption.
Essentially, DR is somewhat a catalyst weaving the fabric in smart energy together, using smart grid as a platform. Fundamentally, the smart grid is a communication network, creating a trading exchange of energy suppliers and consumers, somewhat like what a stock exchange does with stock counters. Buildings have always been seen as net energy consumers, but this mind-set is shifting as buildings could be capable of generating their own power through renewables, making them a net contributor back to the grid with their excess capacity. As such, DR will play a key role, governing the economics or market place for energy flow through dynamic pricing mechanisms.

ABI Research has published a research report on the smart metering market and is due to publish a research report on the building management systems market . For additional information, please refer to the variety of products in our M2M Research Service and WSN Research Service .
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I am Not a Dumb SignBoard… Communicate with Me

Jul 11, 2011 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

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Japanese mobile operator Softbank and leasing firm Orix are keen to have passers-by being able to interact with (digital) signboards and receive customized advertising. The 46 inch digital signboard will be installed in a number of East Asian markets and will be able to list advertisements, and send out email messages, in English, Japanese, Chinese and Korean.

Advertisers can get their interactive content displayed from US$ 990 per month. Softbank and Orix are installing the first digital signboard at the Hakata International Ferry Terminal and hope to deploy 10,000 signboards over the next five years.
Over the past five years we have seen paper signboards being replaced by luminous, dynamic image signboards. 2D tags and short text dialling codes allow passers-by to capture advertising content via email or MMS. Bluetooth offers another means to download content direct to the end-user’s handset.
Digital signboards have even greater potential. They could potentially sense the “presence” and “interests” of the passer-by who has opted in to having a carefully vetted profile “short-range broadcasted” via Bluetooth to a local digital signboards in your vicinity. Addicted to Starbucks coffee or craving for your favourite Subway sandwich? Your friendly neighbourhood digital signboard could not only flag up the nearest store to you, offer you a 10% discount (if say you visit the store in the next 4 hours) and then download turn-by-turn pedestrian (or vehicular) directions to the store to your smartphone.

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Ericsson’s E2E multiscreen television solution

Jul 7, 2011 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

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​At CommunicAsia 2011, Ericsson showcased multiscreen television solution. Ericsson branded it as E2E TV, (End-to-Endless TV). The solution is designed to deliver video content to multiple devices depending on the users' choice of device.

Ericsson's multiscreen television technology provides efficient solution for pay TV operators to offer highly personalized servic to the customers. Customers will be able to select or manage the program on any selected device and choose any desired screen to view the program. This is the additional value which can give customer satisfication.

Consumer behaviour of watching video content has been changing since we have more choices to view TV programs on different type of devices. Majority of young generation spend more time watching video content on the connected devices such as PC, laptops, media tablets and mobile phones. This proves that consumer appetite to get flexible viewing experience of the content on any of their device at any time is growing.

Ericsson's multiscreen television solution will enable service providers to offer pay TV services wich meet the user demand to view the video content anywhere and anytime they want.

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Qualcomm pips BRCM, CSR and TI to GPS/GNSS Vendor Matrix Win

Jul 6, 2011 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

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In many ways it is unsurprising that Qualcomm have emerged as the leading provider of GPS/GNSS solutions. The sheer size of its shipments, means that it will always be in the running. However, over the last two years it has managed to get beyond its CDMA space, into WCDMA with design wins at a number of tier one OEMs. Similarly its snapdragon platform has proven to be hugely successful with high penetration expected in the tablet market. Qualcomm has also been involved in development of Glonass and is beleived to be working on new hybrid location technologies, which will be an essential offering in the future.

There is very little to separate Broadcom and CSR in the battle for integrated GS IC dominance. Broadcom offers a wide range of IC implementations, design innovations and major contract wins across a number of different vertical markets. The Apple design win also helps a bit!CSR continues to drive innovation in terms of optimizing GPS IC performance to meet growing demand in emerging markets, while continuing to generate significant revenue from established markets. This is reflected in CSR’s recent Samsung Galaxy S II design win, as well as a growing presence inthe camera and health and fitness markets.

Infineon/Intel drops out of the top 5 following the launch of the iPhone 4. Texas Instruments continues to hold a strong position, but is overly exposed to Nokia smartphones. St-Ericsson, Seiko-Epson, Mediatek and ST-Microelectronics also featuring amongst the 21 companies analyzed in the matrix

Smaller manufacturers appear to have successfully transitioned from largely missing the cellular and PND markets to establishing themselves within smaller niche markets. While larger competitors remain a threat as markets move into the mainstream, there is a still more than enough opportunity to continue to grow, particularly in the areas of telematics, fleet management and in-car. U-blox is a great example of this with almost 3000 customers and a strong position in the automotive sector.Following a strong 2010, it has featured prominently in the matrix.

To view a chart showing the rankings of the top ten firms in this Vendor Matrix, please visit GPS IC Market Vendor Matrix (http://www.abiresearch.com/research/1003220). ​

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Location Advertising Market will become Location Analytics Market

Jul 6, 2011 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

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The value of location in mobile advertising will become commoditized. To maintain location premiums companies need to begin adopting locationanalytics as soon as possible. This is where the value and differentiation can be maintained in location based advertising.

Initial trial results for location based advertising are proving incredibly successful. Companies like Telmap, Navteq, Placecast and Loc-aid are all reporting far better CTRs than standard mobile ads, with the added benefit of providing trackable and enviable CPAs. Everything is pointing towards a bright future, with advertisers happy to pay a premium for location based advertising with a measureable return on investment.

The current market is still exploring the myriad of ways to implement location; however, the focus is largely on targeting opt-in users through geofencing of local stores, etc. This will localize the advertising, which has a certain value, but there is a strong chance that it may not be personally relevant. Geofencing is a very powerful tool but it can also be extremely expensive to implement, without very clever algorithms and rules in place, which can greatly affect the RoI for advertisers.

The real power of location based advertising will come by building in a variety of other social, geographic, physical, social and emotional indicators to filter the advert being served to the specific user. The best way to easily combine these factors and target them to individuals in a non-intrusive, anonymous way is through location analytics.
Location analytics can take many shapes. PlaceIQ is building up an analytical model of individual places/blocks of cities, which can then be used to infer information on the type of person in that area at a particular time and day can give advertisers feedback. Companies like Sense Networks are taking a slightly different approach, building up anonymous profiles of individuals, which are then carefully grouped into useful advertising demographics. In both cases the level of detail that can be extracted is amazing. Skyhook wireless is using its huge source of over 500 million location requests each day, to identify social and commercial trends, which can then be used to support new applications and advertising.
Outside of the start-ups every major player in the industry is getting involved, including Google, Apple, microsoft, Facebook, Nokia, RiM andnetwork carriers.What is evident is that this will become an inherent part of targetted mobile advertising. In North America alone, ABI Research forecasts that locatio analytics will representalmost $3Billion in 2016, or 85% of total LBA revenue.

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At What Stage Is The Indian UID Project?

Jul 6, 2011 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

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India is well underway in the registration phase of their UID project. On enrollment each citizen is receiving a unique 12 digit UID number. The number is directly linked to each individual’s personal information based on biometrics captured and stored on a central nationwide database.

Of course the mammoth scale of the project meant that it caught the attention of the media and a certain amount of hype around the project was created, but where is the project now and is it living up to its expectations?

Still in the enrolment process I can’t help but feel I was a little mislead by the Indian government’s initial promises and aims, which now seem very unrealistic when you look at the actual progress made so far. Most media coverage you see now is negative arguing that enrolment target figures are not being met and that the project is at risk of running over budget. Of course you have to expect some flexibility in lead times when embarking on a program with remote areas hard to access and with such a massive population to enroll. All these factors need to be taken into consideration, but this said I thought that the initial phase of registration would be conducted at a speedy pace to allow the government to initiate other new and exciting add on services that they have been trialing, directly linked to the UID numbers. This has not really materialized with the enrolment phase still in its infancy.

Trials have taken place for smart pension cards, voter’s registration and welfare cards. For mass distribution to begin the first phase must be completed. We have even seen the possibility of adding payment and banking applications linked to the project using the UID number to allow access to certain ATM services without the need for a card. As innovative as these add on services may seem we must for now wait in anticipation, be patient and hope that the once positively hyped project reproduces what they originally set out to do and does not disappear eventually being forgotten. Although progress is being made I fear (as I am sure others do also) that budgetary constraints could result in parts of the project being scrapped, shelved or watered down.
The Indian project is one of the largest in the world, but many other countries are migrating to different forms of ID documentation and healthcare solutions. The newly released report titled “Government and Healthcare Citizen ID” discusses the trends and forecasted shipments for government issued credentials to their citizens, including the anticipated Russian multi-application smart national ID card, China’s migration to a microcontroller IC and Nigeria’s new attempt to implement another national ID scheme to name but a few. The report can be found under ABI Research’s Smart Cards and Embedded Security group.

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Net Neutrality Should Be Followed by Network Sharing

Jul 5, 2011 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

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​The Dutch policymakers have done the right thing by introducing a law that will enshrine net neutrality also in the mobile sector. Other countries in Europe and elsewhere should follow their example.

The biggest implication of wireless net neutrality to mobile operators is that their toolkit to differentiate service bundles and monetize data traffic becomes suddenly much emptier. They can’t charge the subscriber a premium for carrying traffic for certain applications, and the same goes for requiring the providers of these applications to pay for guaranteed QoS.

I’d like to stress that it is very important that both fixed and mobile environments will be covered by net neutrality laws, for excluding the mobile could pretty much immobilize future innovations. A killer app that works only over Wi-Fi is like a sport car with flat tires. That would be a huge loss, given that the innovation of consumer applications has thus far been done by over-the-top players and not by operators: Skype and Whatsapp aren’t only cheaper than the carrier services they substitute, but also better.

It is understandable that the requirement of net neutrality may well push mobile operators to the wall and force them compromise their network investments, but it would be unwise to get carried away by that threat. The solution is simple: let’s face the facts and start treating their industry as a utility business, which is what it essentially has become.

In other utility sectors such as energy and water, overlapping infrastructures are considered waste of resources and the same approach should be gradually applied to mobile operators as well. MNOs should be permitted and encouraged to consolidate their networks into a mutually owned partnership (along the lines of what for instance Telenor and TeliaSonera have announced for their Danish ops) and compete merely as service providers.

This road ahead is not ideal, but I’d argue that it’s the one that results in the highest possible network investment under net neutrality, and thus in the highest possible level of consumer welfare.​​

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Bye Bye "Unlimited" Wireless Data Plans - Verizon Wireless Is Latest to Move to Usage Pricing

Jul 5, 2011 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

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As expected, thisThursday Verizon Wireless will switch its smartphone data pricing to a usage-based model - similar to what AT&T and T-Mobile have already done.

The NewCaps

New Verizon smartphone subscribers will have to choose a plan that will have monthlyusage caps:2GB for $30, 5GB for $50, and 10GB for $80. Customers will pay $10 for each additional GB they use beyond their plan. Existing customers can keep their unlimited data plans. (Feature phone owners will pay $10 per month for 75MB of data usage.)

The new pricing schemecomes as mobile operators in the U.S.seek ways tooffset explodingdemand for mobile Internet accessand media consumption againstnetwork capacity.

Reality: the usage capswon't bother most smartphone owners very much.Typically, they stay under 2GB.Only the heaviest users will be affected.

Still, as these data plans become the norm over the next several years, consumers will have to adjust to a new wirelessreality: Figuring out how much data they really useper month.Hardly anyone (includingthe wireless "experts" I talk to) hasa clue.People justknow they wantto avoid the dreadedsurprise bill that blows a budget.

Somewhat Confusing Time

So,it's going to be a somewhat confusing time formany consumersas they figure out what price levelis best for them. And it won't get easier as multiple-device mobile data plans (e.g., smartphone, tablet, family combinations) become common as well.

Smart operators will offereasy-to-understand comparisons(and historical data) so people can make intelligent choices. If they don't,consumer backlash could get ugly, and that's never good for business. Or, consumerscould go to Sprint, which for now is the lone Tier 1 operator in the U.S. sticking with unlimited data plans.

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Texas Instruments (TI) and Netflix unveil Netflix HD certification

Jul 5, 2011 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

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Today, Texas Instruments made a big deal (http://goo.gl/gUBvt) announcing they were the first to achieve certification for the Netflix HD Silicon Reference Implementation. Ignoring for a moment the importance of HD video on small screen devices including smartphones and tablets – this is good news for the Android marketplace as a whole. In February, I wrote about the fragmented Android marketplace for Android devices, including both the Boxee box and a number of Android-based tablet devices. (Boxee did manage to overcome those hurdles and release Netflix onto Boxee Box on Valentine’s day -- February 14, 2011.) The fact that TI and Netflix cooperated to develop a reference implementation implies that other vendors will soon follow. We hope to see Qualcomm in the mobile device space and Broadcom, Intel, Sigma, Zoran, Trident and others in the TV space.

Once they have cooperated (with Netflix as referee) on this silicon implementation establishing security and video decoding for an HD video platform could make conditional access (CA) and digital rights management (DRM) security implementations less fragmented – further enabling Android’s role in the digital home and setting the stage for video delivery to Android devices.

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Goodbye Google PowerMeter!

Jul 4, 2011 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

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On 24th June 2011, Google announced that it was shutting down its Google PowerMeter project. This project was launched two years ago to raise awareness about the importance of giving people access to data. Google stated that “While they didn't catch on the way we would have hoped, we believe they did highlight the importance of access to information in areas where it’s traditionally been difficult.”
The tool will be shut down on 16th September 2011 to give users enough time to download their data before the end of the service.

PowerMeter originated from Google’s philanthropic arm Google.org and in the early days of PowerMeter, Ed Lu, one of the key members behind this project stated that it was not trying to build a business model around it. True to his words, its viability did raise some questions, at least at this juncture. Despite its exit, PowerMeter has demonstrated what consumption information can mean to the user.
In essence, Google has been a good advocate of energy efficiency management through their global outreach to individuals, which is good for all these roll-outs in the smart energy space, especially, with the recent spate of events experienced by PG&E on consumer backlash. Awareness has been a missing part in numerous smart meter deployments, so Google, in its ways, has been instrumental in that aspect. Give yourself a pat, Google!
What Google could have done was to leverage its forte in algorithm expertise in terms of analytics of energy consumption data with focus on the users, this could have been a more valuable resource to utilities as a value added service, rather than portraying an image of being the wall between utilities and customers. ABI Research has published a research report on the smart metering market . For additional information, please refer to the variety of products in our M2M Research Service and WSN Research Service
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