Current labor shortages are forcing organizations to compete for labor like never before. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the United States labor participation rate was 61.8% in November. While this is the highest rate seen since March 2020, it is still far below levels observed leading up to March 2020 which hovered consistently around 63%. This labor shortage is not unique to the United States, nor is it expected to abate anytime soon. These constraints are affecting transportation and logistics organizations in particular, especially given that while workers were leaving the labor force in droves, delivery fleets were forced to expand to accommodate the tremendous increase in e-Commerce volume demand. Learn more

Electric vehicles (EV) and adjacent technologies have been gaining interest as the climate crisis worsens and alternatives to fossil fuels are explored. Increasing government support for the shift towards EVs adds to the confidence that automakers already have making the push towards all-electric or majority-electric product portfolios. Tesla is the dominant EV manufacturer at the moment, accounting for just over 21% of the fully electric vehicle market segment. Other companies such as Volkswagen, Hyundai, Volvo, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar Land Rover, and Ford are also making strides to carve a space of the EV market out for themselves. Learn more

Claroty made a pair of significant announcements on Wednesday, sharing news of a new $400 million round of Series E funding, while also disclosing an agreement to acquire Medigate, an IoT security company serving the healthcare industry. This round of funding―which brought Claroty’s total to $635 million―was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, Schneider Electric, and SoftBank, among others; financial terms of the Medigate acquisition were not disclosed. Learn more

On November 2, 2021, Digi International announced that it had acquired Ventus Holdings, a managed network-as-a-service provider, in a cash deal for $347M. The price tag, by far Digi’s largest acquisition ever, raised some VDC analyst eyebrows, as it exceeded Digi’s total annual revenue of $279M for FY2020. Only time will tell if the purchase price was a good value for Digi, but VDC sees a range of synergies between the companies that will undoubtedly be of benefit to Digi. Learn more

Federated Wireless, the premier provider of CBRS spectrum sharing services, has announced the release of the company’s new Spectrum Exchange service. This service is aimed to supplement CBRS General Authorized Access (GAA) availability by enabling Priority Access License (PAL) holders to lease out their unused spectrum to non-PAL holders. Through an automated portal, similar to Airbnb, enterprises with PALs can publish pricing, terms, and location options, as well as conduct transactions with non-PAL holding potential lessees, all without direct engagement with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Learn more

e-Commerce delivery and curbside checkout are supported by 89.7% and 79.3% of large retailers respectively, but curbside checkout in particular has had the most significant jump in adoption by businesses over the last year or so as a direct response to the disruption caused by COVID‑19. Learn more

The growth in IoT device connections will rapidly accelerate over the next five years and will push OEMs and solution providers into unfamiliar wireless domains. While established wireless communications such as 3G and Wi-Fi support many IoT workloads today, others such as LTE-M, NB-IoT and 5G are gaining ground and will be critical technologies through the next five years.Learn more

On Thursday, September 23rd, VDC’s Richa Gupta will co-present a webinar with Loftware’s VP of Global Product Management, Josh Roffman, where they will discuss the importance of barcode labeling accuracy and consistency to manage growing supply chain complexities and enable error-free traceability. Learn more

VDC Research recently published a comprehensive report as part of a custom thought leadership engagement for Newcastle Systems, a leading mobile powered workstation vendor. Learn more

Within the mounted forklift computer market, traditional purpose-built computers are facing significant pressure from the emergence of rugged tablets that can function as mounted computers. Learn more

On June 17th, 2021 Brady Corporation, a global leader in safety, identification, and compliance solutions announced that it has acquired The Code Corporation for $173 Million. Learn more

AI has proliferated throughout many different environments, including the embedded space, which features unique deployment considerations and market opportunities. Learn more

On June 3rd, Walmart announced that they will provide 740,000 Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro rugged smartphones to retail associates in conjunction with the launch of Walmart’s new Me@Walmart app. Representing Samsung’s largest enterprise deal in the US so far, this new partnership will provide nearly half of Walmart’s domestic store population with a smartphone device by the end of 2021. Learn more

Google recently held its I/O event to unveil updates, partnerships, and new features for several different products. Across these announcements there are a few that standout as having practical applications within enterprise environments either at present or in the future. Learn more

On May 18th, Zebra Technologies made significant news in Machine Vision and Industrial Barcode Scanning with a five‑part announcement. Learn more

Colonial Pipeline, which operates the largest fuel pipeline in the country, shut down its operations on Friday following a ransomware attack. The attack ― which the FBI has attributed to a Russian criminal group known as DarkSide. Learn more

On April 15th, Brady Corporation announced the company has come to an agreement to acquire Nordic ID for $9.7 million. The acquisition will add Nordic ID’s expertise in RFID reader/scanning technology and customizable cloud solutions to Brady Corporation’s portfolio of advanced labels, safety devices, industrial printer systems and software solutions. Learn more

Microsoft has won a substantial contract to provide its augmented reality (AR) headsets, the HoloLens, to the U.S. Army. This contract awards Microsoft $21.9B over the course of ten years to provide the U.S. Army with more than 120,000 HoloLens units. Learn more

Each day, the world becomes more and more connected. People and businesses increasingly rely on technology to communicate and share information. However, there are still parts of the world with underserved or unserved access to the Internet; according to Datareportal.com, only 59.5% of the global population has network access as of January 2021. Learn more

AMETEK announced on Monday that it had acquired Magnetrol International and two other companies―Crank Software and EGS Automation―for a total of approximately $270 million. Both Magnetrol and Crank will join AMETEK’s Electronic Instruments Group, while EGS will become part of the company’s Electromechanical Group. Learn more

As 2021 gets underway and we look ahead to the next year, and even the next four years, there are new enterprise mobility market factors to expect in the wake of the new presidential administration in the United States. Learn more

Industry 4.0 makes it possible for industrial organizations to dramatically increase profitability by realizing unprecedented levels of production efficiency and flexibility, supply chain control, and worker safety. Learn more

In order to serve the growing number of organizations adopting DevOps practices in their software development pipelines, IBM and GitLab announced an expanded partnership to help automate the delivery of cloud-native applications. Learn more

Since the COVID‑19 pandemic hit worldwide in early 2020, nearly all trade shows and conferences have been cancelled, postponed, or converted to virtual events. Learn more

Loftware and NiceLabel announced on January 12th the combination of their two organizations and, with it, have significantly altered the landscape for labeling solutions. Learn more

If you are ever driving through farmland, construction or forestry sites or even by a neighbor who enjoys keeping their lawn in tip-top shape, then you will recognize the iconic image of a yellow buck across a green background, the logo of Deere & Company, better known as John Deere. Learn more