Shipium, a supply chain software company announced its Series A funding on April 14. The $27.5M funding round is the largest ever Series A for a supply chain software provider and brings the company’s total funding to $38.7M. Shipium, which calls itself a “fulfillment management platform for e-commerce retail” posits that with the right modern solutions, any e-commerce retailer can compete with Amazon. Amazon, the e-commerce titan and de facto measuring stick for all things online retail, is on the resumes of both Mac Brown and Jason Murray, who co-founded Shipium in 2019. Learn more
Climate change is one of the most important issues affecting the future of all life around the globe. Growing advocacy movements to address the causes of man-made climate change and prepare society for a greener future have led leaders in both the public and private sectors promising to reduce carbon emissions and promote sustainable practices. Governments are enacting policies that encourage the reduction of their nation’s carbon footprints, while enterprises are adapting to these policies with more sustainable and cleaner business models. In the world of enterprise mobility, solution providers are taking action to “go green” while also reducing the footprints of their customers. Learn more
Urban Air Mobility (UAM) – also known as Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) – has the potential to revolutionize life in urban centers for residents and enterprises. UAM has varying definitions across existing groups in the space, all of which refer to the airborne movement of goods and/or people in urban spaces, carried out by a highly automated VTOL drones; the Urban-Air-Mobility Initiative Cities Community (UIC2) of the European Union simply defines it as “very-low altitude airborne traffic, above populated areas, at scale.” Learn more
The global market for data acquisition (DAQ) solutions—technologies used to convert physically or electrically measured signals such as temperature or pressure into digital output suitable for computer processing—will continue to expand as business leaders worldwide increasingly emphasize the importance of data-driven decision making. Learn more
This week at the Healthcare Information & Management Systems Society conference in Orlando, Florida, Philips unveiled the latest development of its Enterprise Performance Analytics program. The company announced that its PerformanceBridge offering, which provides operational insights and deep analytics capabilities to radiology practices, will now be available to cardiology practices. While mobile analytics have historically focused on the device itself, Philips’ offering is part of a new wave of mobile analytics programs which offer much more. Learn more
Mobile devices are becoming essential tools for enterprise operations across many verticals. Whether it’s providing consumers with mobile app options or utilizing mobile devices to increase employee productivity, enterprise mobility is one of the most influential trends for businesses today. While these mobile solutions are becoming increasingly popular amongst US businesses, they come with inherent challenges. Learn more
Loftware, the global market leader for barcode labeling software, announced its acquisition of UK-based PRISYM ID in January. With this, the company further extends its position in the life sciences vertical, which has always been a key area of focus. PRISYM ID offers label management solutions for clinical trials, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals. Learn more
On December 22, Optoro, Inc. announced a $25 million strategic investment led by Zebra Technologies. Also participating in the funding round were Volta Circle, eBay, and UPS. This investment comes as returns processes become a top-of-mind issue for retailers, brands, and 3PLs. Shifting consumer behaviors like the migration toward e-Commerce and the rise of bracketing have pushed returns volumes to new heights. Learn more
Today, B2M Solutions, a global enterprise mobile software company, announced an expansion of its partnership with Peak Technologies, a leading provider of end-to-end supply chain solutions, system integration, and managed services for enterprise mobility. With this partnership expansion, Peak Technologies will bundle B2M’s Elemez software suite as part of Peak Mobile Insights, the company’s managed service offering for enterprise customers. Learn more
In-person CES returned after a two-year hiatus…albeit with a bit of a whimper. Attendance was estimated by CES as “up to 75,000” although it felt closer to 50K on Day 1. Exhibitors numbered 2,200, a sharp drop from over 4,400 in 2020 and lacking several blue-chip vendors that pulled out in the 11th hour amid the current Omicron surge. Attendee safety was front and center with the CTA (the show’s organizer) tasked with the virtually impossible job of creating and enforcing safety protocols. With the backdrop of COVID-19 omni-present, health tech predictably took center stage at CES 2022. This extended to the big stage with Abbott CEO delivering one of the event’s keynote addresses. Learn more
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
The development of containers largely originated from Linux-based operating systems (OSs), making Linux the essential groundwork for the vast majority of modern container deployments, including Docker containers and those orchestrated through Kubernetes. Learn more
Google launched the Android Enterprise Recommended (AER) program in 2018 to help enterprise mobility decision makers select, deploy and manage Android devices with more confidence. The AER program makes it easier for businesses to scale and support their mobile fleets while attempting to curtail platform fragmentation. Learn more
Juniper Networks will be acquiring smart wide area networking startup 128 Technology for $450 million. In March 2019 Juniper Networks acquired Mist Systems for $405 million, another AI-powered networking company. Learn more
The retail landscape continues to face key challenges around inventory management and accuracy where enterprises are looking towards automation to drive productivity. The lack of accurate inventory management and stock availability has cost retailers sales and consumer satisfaction in their in-store shopping experience. Read more
2020 has been a year of tremendous change for most everyone including the global market for IoT, embedded and mobile processing solutions. Earlier this week, AMD announced it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Xilinx in an all-stock transaction valued at $35B – just below the record-setting acquisition of Arm by NVIDIA for $40B announced just over a month ago. Learn more
Ivanti, backed by Clearlake Capital and TA Associates announced it will strategically acquire MobileIron Inc. and Pulse Secure. Ivanti will acquire MobileIron for approximately $872 million with MobileIron stockholders receiving $7.05 in cash per share, a 27% premium. Learn more
The evolution of device functionality continues to expand performance requirements of software. In turn, software becomes more complex year after year. Meanwhile, the surge in organizations adopting Agile and DevOps redefines their approach to software development with rapid release and testing cycles for faster time to market competence. Learn more
In a continued effort to solidify its role as an end-to-end solutions provider for first responder and critical communications environments, Motorola Solutions has recently acquired Callyo, a Florida-based software-as-a-service company. Learn more
Maritime trade accounts for 90% of overall global trade. By far the most cost-effective way to move goods, this method of trade is essential to the world economy. Once vessels arrive at their destination, they must anchor and wait to be called into port, which can sometimes take over a month. Learn more
Samsung’s 2020 Galaxy Unpacked, a virtual product reveal event, took place last week. Leaders from the technology giant’s mobile teams spent over an hour unveiling five new products: the Note20 smartphone and Note20 Ultra phablet, the Tab S7 / S7+ tablet, the Watch3 smartwatch and Buds Live wireless earbuds. Learn more
The COVID-19 pandemic has given pause to nearly every facet of the world as we know it. The sudden and unpredictable nature of this global crisis has urged every element of society and industry to take a step back and reevaluate how it functions. Learn more
Panasonic officially released the TOUGHBOOK A3 tablet along with Productivity+ Android Platform Support. The new fully-rugged tablet is the fourth Android-based TOUGHBOOK device released from Panasonic, following the 7” TOUGHBOOK L1, 5” TOUGHBOOK T1, and 4.7” TOUGHBOOK N1. Learn more
Following months of speculation, Microsoft, announced on Monday its acquisition of CyberX, a cybersecurity startup that provides a continuous monitoring and vulnerability management platform built for OT networks. Terms of the deal were not officially disclosed, though several media outlets, including TechCrunch, reported the acquisition will cost Microsoft approximately $165 million. Learn more
The opportunity to equip ground soldiers with secure and reliable and at the same time easy to use and ergonomic has confounded mobile OEMs and DoD decision makers for years. Options frequently came up short and were described as too expensive, too bulky/heavy, not user friendly or not sufficiently secure. Learn more
The COVID-19 virus changed every day life in an instant. People around the world are stuck inside while countries institute prolonging stay-at-home and lockdown procedures. As a result, businesses deemed non-essential are shutting doors, some forever. Learn more
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused delays in manufacturers’ supply chains across business segments, stopping several key consumer facing industries in their tracks. The automotive sector faces particular financial losses due to factories temporarily shutting down to mitigate the spread of infection, as well as slackened demand for new car purchases during the pandemic. Learn more
The acquisition of Cypress Semiconductor by Infineon Technologies closed today and continues a prolonged period of embedded processor market consolidation. The takeover was not without a few bumps along the journey ending roughly 10 months after Germany’s Infineon announcing its intent to acquire Cypress for €9 billion. Learn more
Step One: Wash Your Hands. Step Two: Read This. Some of the most valuable personal assets that we have are our mobile computing devices: our tablets, laptops, and the smartphones that we feel uneasy being away from for too long. The same applies to the business world. Learn more
The commercial market for RISC-V has established a firm foothold in embedded processing. The open-source RISC-V instruction set architecture has been a hot topic for the past couple of years and continued to be a couple of weeks ago in Embedded World as highlighted in our VDC View covering the event. Learn more
The global economic turbulence and uncertainty incited by the coronavirus pandemic has affected businesses of all shapes and sizes. In the manufacturing sector, organizations have struggled to balance their business and operational needs with the health and safety of their workers, most of whom are unable to work remotely due to the inherently physical nature of their positions on the factory floor. Learn more
The last week in February usually marks the biggest time of the year for mobile technology. Every year since 2006, leaders in the mobile industry convene at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, hosted by the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSMA), to announce product launches, hold special press conferences and hammer out deals behind the scenes. Learn more
One week ago marked the day Shadow Inc. made a grievous error by launching their faulty smartphone application to track voting records at the Iowa Caucus. The application was part of a technological policy push to create greater efficiency, ease, and transparency within an important process for the Democratic Party to choose their lead candidate in the presidential election. Learn more
Amazon has been offering guided tours of some of its warehouse facilities and fulfillment centers for just under a year now – the anniversary of its first tour will be February 1st. The everything giant allows anyone older than the age of six to tour 25 of its 145 facilities throughout the US and 20 others internationally, as long as they book ahead of time. Learn more
For the past several years, CES has been a premier showcase for automotive technology. In this gallery of photos, we highlight selected automotive and transportation infrastructure exhibits from the big show, as well as the GO-NV transportation summit and technology showcase event hosted by the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, just prior to CES on the campus of University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). Learn more
In the first week of the new year CES once again invaded Las Vegas, and among the vast range of products and services was a plethora of automotive and transportation-related technology. (See a forthcoming VDC View document for a broader overview of automotive and transportation tech at the show.) Learn more
Digital twin technology has the potential to revolutionize urban development in a future striving for greener technologies and more efficient energy use. Although the concept has been around since the early 2000s, the practical application of digital twin technology has just begun to sprout in the real world. A digital twin is a simulation of a real life product, service, or process. Learn more
VDC recently had the opportunity to attend a 5G-oriented Verizon customer event; Nokia, (one of Verizon's 5G partners) also participated. 5G's role in augmenting public safety, transportation and smart cities were key themes, with both Verizon and Nokia... Learn more
Police officers in the field have a wide and critical range of mobile computing needs. Officers’ traditional mobile computing setup – a fixed, rugged in-vehicle laptop mounted on a swing arm – is not without its limitations as it relates to those needs. Learn more
Honeywell, a longstanding giant of the warehousing technology market, has recently disclosed its plans to take the supply chain’s evolving demands head-on. On October 24th of this year the company unveiled Honeywell Robotics, a robotics innovation hub and center of excellence to be built in Pittsburgh. Learn more
VDC attended MWC Americas recently, the third instantiation of the regional MWC event that saw over 22,000 attendees converge in downtown Los Angeles for the three-day show. Keynotes Included LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, FCC Chariman Ajit Pai, and Director General of the GSMA Mats Granryd, among other key individuals within the telecom space. Learn more
The global market for process level measurement instrumentation is well-established, yet diverse and still evolving. While many of the older, mechanical-style devices maintain extensive installed bases, newer technologies such as laser and radar have been the target of continued innovation from some of the world’s largest industrial automation suppliers. Learn more
Daqri, a leading smart glasses company founded in 2010, recently announced that it would shut down its headquarters by the end of September. The augmented reality (AR) company focused on producing smart glasses along with its complementary software, Worksense, intending to integrate these solutions into the industrial workforce. Learn more
Last week, Xilinx hosted its 2nd Xilinx Developer Forum (XDF) Silicon Valley event in San Jose and it featured some important news announcements, a wide variety of different breakout sessions and hands-on developer labs, and insightful presentations from industry veterans. Learn more
Change is afoot and the pressures facing retailers are driving them to re-evaluate their infrastructure, especially with their point-of-sale (POS) solutions. Taking stock of their operations, many retailers are moving towards administering new types of code onto their consumer products. Read more
Sensors Expo & Conference 2019, an event focused exclusively on sensors and sensor-integrated systems, took place from June 25th through June 27th at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, CA. Learn more
Siemens welcomed more than 700 attendees to this year’s Automation Summit, an annual event held last week at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center in Denver, Colorado. Siemens’ objective for the conference is to inspire, enable, and support its customers’ automation initiatives by fostering collaboration among users, third-party solution partners, and Siemens experts. Learn more
Android’s footprint in the enterprise is a substantial and fast-growing one. VDC Research reports that in fiscal year 2019, shipments of rugged handheld computers running Android will surpass the sum shipment volume of all other operating systems for this small form factor. Learn more
Apple’s annual World Wide Developer’s Conference went down this past Monday, where they revealed what users and developers could expect in iOS13. Naturally, we focused on the changes specific to Apple’s desires to expand iOS device usage in corporate settings. Learn more
After a brief lull in semiconductor M&A, Infineon Technologies has announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquired Cypress Semiconductor for an enterprise value of €9.0 billion (~$10B). Infineon has increased its market share in the embedded microcontroller (MCU) market by nearly 40% through the merger while at the same time establishing a foothold in the marketplace for system-on-chips (SoCs). Read more
TensorFlow is among the most popular open source frameworks for machine learning (ML) but its leadership is under siege. Produced by Google, TensorFlow has been adopted by numerous companies including Airbnb, Arm, Intel, Lenovo, Qualcomm, and Twitter. The platform is known for its easy model building, flexibility to provide models individually or together, and live training for customers, among other features. Read more
VDC attended IoT World 2019 in Santa Clara, a four-day event attended by a diverse mix of startups and established embedded players in the IoT ecosystem. The event hosted 12,000 participants with keynote speakers including Bask Iyer (CIO of VMWare/Dell), Michael Sherwood (Director of Innovation for City of Las Vegas), and Greg Kahn (CEO of the IoT Consortium). Read more
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., RealWear, and UROS announced plans to provide 10,000 RealWear HMT-1 and HMT-1Z1 devices to front line industrial workers in Kazakhstan. UROS, a Finnish technology company focusing on connectivity solutions across industrial, natural resource and smart city segments. Per the agreement, UROS, will deploy RealWear HMT-1 and HMT 1Z1 devices to workers in Kazakhstan. Learn more
On April 18th, Microsoft announced the acquisition of Express Logic, a San Diego-based embedded software company, for an undisclosed sum. Read more
The embedded processor landscape is undergoing a dramatic transformation that is redefining the bounds of discrete processing. While the global markets for discrete embedded MPUs, GPUs, DSPs, and FPGAs push on, other processing solutions are absorbing the majority of new socket opportunities. Read more
The RISC-V Roadshow made its way to the Boston area yesterday, featuring a number of live demonstrations and presentations from RISC-V Foundation members. A variety of companies are participating in the North America leg of the trip, including Andes Technology, Antmicro, Dover Microsystems, Hex Five, Imperas Software, Microchip Technology, SiFive, and Western Digital. Read more
Dragos, Inc., a provider of industrial cybersecurity software and services, announced on Monday its acquisition of NexDefense, the provider of an asset discovery and identification tool for industrial control system (ICS) networks. Upon announcing this acquisition, Dragos revealed that the NexDefense tool, Integrity, would be packaged with another Dragos tool, CyberLens, and offered free of charge as part of Dragos Community Tools. Learn more
At this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, IoT products and services were less prominent than in recent years, as the spotlights this time shone primarily on 5G networks, and to a lesser extent on Microsoft’s second generation Hololens glasses for augmented reality. Nevertheless, IoT was ever-present, blending in like an accepted member of the wireless family. Read more
Every year, Nuremberg, Germany becomes the epicenter for embedded technology with all of the industry’s most influential players coming together to roll out new products, announce game-changing collaborations, and show off innovative solutions. Last week’s conference featured more than 1,100 exhibitors from 52 countries and many use Embedded World as a platform to communicate new critical developments for their businesses to the 32,000+ trade visitors and 2,200 conference participants. Read more
ServiceMax, one of the most prominent companies in field service management, has just acquired Zinc, an enterprise communications company focused on deskless workers. This comes hot on the heels of Silver Lake’s acquisition of ServiceMax from GE. However, ServiceMax’s acquisition of Zinc proves that Silver Lake is interested in growing ServiceMax and gives ServiceMax a powerful new suite of capabilities unmatched by any other field service management provider. Learn more
VDC recently concluded its latest survey of the industrial automation community, receiving more than 215 web-based responses from a worldwide panel of industrial professionals in engineering, logistics, R&D, and executive leadership roles. Learn more
Early this week, VMware announced the intent to acquire AetherPal, a mobile device management solution focused on enhancing remote support. This acquisition will follow a multi-year business relationship between the two companies and reflects VMware’s growing efforts to enhance their remote support capabilities to increase the efficiency, flexibility, and quality of their mobile device management system. Learn more
Zebra Technologies announced its intent to acquire privately held Temptime Corporation for an undisclosed sum. Temptime is an industry leader in the development of remote temperature monitoring solutions, with a particular focus in the healthcare industry. Read more
ODG and Meta, top players in the smart glasses and augmented reality (AR) space, are closing down. This is sobering news: both companies had received over $50M in funding, and ODG had been a darling among smart glasses manufacturers as recently as 2017. These companies had developed innovative and meaningfully differentiating technology, but it ultimately was not enough for them to succeed. Learn more
Chicago-based Motorola Solutions, a leading provider of technological products for government, public safety and first responder agencies, has acquired VaaS International Holdings for $445 million. VaaS (video analysis-as-a-service) is a global forerunner in AI-driven image capture and data analysis technology best known for its automated license place recognition (ALPR) technology. The company also focuses on facial recognition, ballistic analysis, firearm mapping, body camera technology, and vehicle location data services. Learn more
Cybersecurity is particularly critical for industrial systems due to the potentially life-threatening consequences of system failures as compared to other classes of connected systems. Combined with the financial and operational implications of stopped manufacturing lines—lost production, scheduling delays, scrap, overhead—the consequences of even a temporary disruption can be disastrous. Learn more
Despite its vast potential, the IIoT is still in its infancy. According to results from our 2018 survey of the industrial automation community, just 40% of respondents indicated their organization is currently deploying IIoT capabilities, as shown in the graphic below, with another 19% expecting to begin deploying such capabilities within the next year. However, approximately 80% of respondents believe their organizations will be utilizing IIoT-related functionality within three years at the latest. Learn more
Amazon Web Services (AWS) showed no signs of slowing down during its annual re:Invent conference and analyst summit, held at the Venetian in Las Vegas this past week. The company presented a “condensed” list of over 55 new services during the re:Invent analyst summit, narrowing down the announcements due to feedback that the 70+ services announced last year were tough to digest. Read more
Mature markets for voice-enabled mobility solutions see significant productivity and efficiency gains from these intuitive and hands-free technologies. Frontline workers can complete workflows such as picking, shipping, receiving and maintenance checklisting much more quickly and smoothly with voice guided and validated tasks enabled on their mobile devices. Currently, data analytics is a nice-to-have capability that complements these voice-enabled workflow solutions with an added touch of visibility. Soon, however, this will be a competitive need-to-have. Learn more
As mentioned in our blog on Apples Device Enrollment Program Sour Apple: Vulnerability Issues with Apples Device Enrollment Program firms are looking for new ways to implement enrollment programs for their mobile devices. As companies transition to devices supported by the likes of industry pillars Apple and Android, methods for large scale Enterprise Mobility Management are becoming a premium for those that wish to expedite and simplify the device configuration process. Learn more
Despite a bizarre incident, and much like the noble gas itself, smartphone manufacturers are unlikely to react. Tech publications have been abuzz over something strange at Morris Hospital in Ottawa, IL. In total, 40 iPhones and Apple Watches experienced a mysterious litany of failures including non-responsive touch screens, lost cellular connectivity, and charging problems. Learn more
The idea of autonomous mobile robots (AMR) and collaborative robots (cobots) in the warehouse have gained traction as machine vision, sensor, and motion technology advances. AMRs and cobots are designed to augment employee work flows making work processes easier and more efficient. Employees have growing concerns that robots will displace their jobs in the manufacturing sector as automation continues to grow; however, the reality is that there are many labor shortages in these sectors where employers seek to deploy robotic labor. Read more
As more companies turn to Apple for their corporate devices of choice, bulk ordering and large scale configuration have tasked the mobile technology titan with creating a more fluid method for Mobile Device Management (MDM). In 2014, Apple introduced their Device Enrollment Program, a program that would allow them to auto configure devices upon purchase. The upside? Apples ability to automate the configuration process reprieves IT departments from having to configure devices in bulk, or firms from paying for additional third party management systems. Learn more
Intel is suffering a severe manufacturing shortage of its 14nm semiconductors, electronic components that Intel’s customers use in manufacturing such devices as smartphones and tablets and notebooks. Intel has released an open letter to its customers and partners pledging rapid changes and affirming the belief that Intel will meet the full-year revenue outlook the company announced in July. Learn more
What Happened? Two significant announcements from global automation suppliers hit the wires on Wednesday, October 3rd: Emerson announced its intention to purchase GE’s Intelligent Platforms division. Honeywell unveiled details regarding its new industrial cybersecurity solution, CyberVantage Security Consulting Services. Learn more
Supply chain traceability is often a time-consuming and costly challenge for food producers. When food bacteria outbreaks such as E coli and salmonella infest any portion of a grocer’s produce, they are forced to throw out an entire batch for a lack of a quick and accurate method to easily identify where it originated from and discard the infested produce. Consumer trust and brand protection are integral to this process where retailers would rather be safe than sorry. Read more
Microsoft and Amazon are locked in a battle to shape the future of computing with their cloud services platforms. Both companies are building out global networks of datacenters and enticing customers to purchase compute-as-a-service as a more flexible alternative to maintaining and scaling infrastructure in-house. Other large software and industrial players – GE, Google, IBM, Oracle, PTC, etc. – have joined the cloud services fray, but when it comes to horizontal IoT cloud services, Microsoft and Amazon are strategic leaders and industry trendsetters. Read more
Among software developers, Canonical’s Ubuntu Linux distribution is widely known and used, especially on servers for the web and cloud. (The Ubuntu operating system is free and open-source, with Canonical generating most of its $126M revenue in 2017 from Ubuntu-related software licensing, maintenance, support, and managed services.) Learn more
For just over a year, Google has been developing and internally deploying a laptop loaner program they call Grab and Go. The premise is simple enough ̶ a PowerGistics shelving tower sits in an open area within a workplace environment, housing a stack of fully charged and enterprise grade Chromebooks ready-to-go for temporary users Learn more
The collective transportation and logistics industry shows a strong embrace of technological developments. VDC’s 2018 Enterprise Buyer Behavior study of mobile technology end users finds a 51.1% year over year increase in transportation respondent’s extreme satisfaction with the pace of their organization’s mobile initiatives, and a 23.4% twelve-month improvement in extreme satisfaction with the adoption of mobile applications. Learn more
Among the most insightful questions asked within VDC’s annual surveys targeting engineers and other end users in industrial and other IoT-related communities delves into the importance of different selection criteria when evaluating and selecting various system components. Learn more
VDC estimates that E-commerce accounted for 10.6% of all global retail sales at the start of 2018 and will grow to 17.6% by 2021. To capitalize on the growing E-commerce opportunity, many retailers have recently re-worked their logistics programs to better service online customers. Ship-from-store capabilities are becoming increasingly popular in the industry – they allow online orders to be fulfilled from the inventory of nearby stores in the event that the product is out of stock in the warehouse(s) that handle(s) most online orders. Learn more
On July 11th, Broadcom Limited riled the tech industry with their surprising purchase of enterprise software company CA Inc., in a massive $19B all-cash deal. Taking many by surprise, the announcement rapidly led to negative sentiment towards Broadcom as many were quick to question the deal. Broadcom in the past has made headlines for notable acquisitions, such as their attempt at a takeover of rival Qualcomm or Brocade Communications. But no such deal has created an uproar compared to this one. Read more
Rumors of the upcoming Qualcomm Snapdragon 1000 could signify major changes for mobile computing. As smartphone processors become more powerful, some have reached the point where they can run systems more like personal computers than smartphones or tablets. Over the past several years, some companies have embraced this approach and have begun to offer devices with Advanced RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) Machine (ARM) processors, which are typically found in mobile devices that run operating systems beyond the typical reach of smartphones and tablets. Learn more
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a collaborative telecommunications standard development organization, has its final milestone on the road to universal 5G availability in sight. This is a road the collective is in part tasked to pave; it is 3GPP’s job to set the standards and specifications for 5G networks and technologies. The organization’s last step regarding 5G is its Release 16, which will expand on large-scale, ubiquitous IoT use cases for the most robust wireless network standard to date. Release 16’s full anticipated timeline spans between now and 2020. Learn more
Sensors Expo & Conference 2018, an event focused exclusively on sensors and sensor-integrated systems, took place from June 26th through June 28th at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, CA. The exhibition hall featured more than 300 exhibitors from around the world, and was co-located with the Medical Sensors Design Conference and the Autonomous Vehicle Sensors Conference. Learn more
IoT, Blockchain, and AI – 3 of the hottest terms in technology – drew a crowd of 8,000 in Amsterdam for the annual IoT Tech Expo Europe. Executives from the Bluetooth Group, Rolls Royce, and Shell all delivered keynotes explaining IoT’s role in the European industrial landscape. Thales, PTC, Microsoft, Ruckus, 1NCE, Device Authority, and DevicePilot were among the sponsors and exhibitors for the event. Read more
Until July 15th when one of the thirty-two qualifying international football teams claims the title of Word Champion in the final game of the tournament, it is all eyes on Russia as they host the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Not many of us are fortunate enough to hop around the eleven Russian host cities throughout June and July to enjoy the tournament live, and so a vast majority of the global population is confined to a screen-based experience. Learn more
If you are worried about the future fortitude of the cybersecurity and data privacy efforts intended to protect your personal information, you are not alone. Lately, there has been an outcry of concern from consumers, media outlets, and politicians regarding that very issue. Learn more
If you are worried about the future fortitude of the cybersecurity and data privacy efforts intended to protect your personal information, you are not alone. Lately, there has been an outcry of concern from consumers, media outlets, and politicians regarding that very issue. Learn more
As companies shift towards relying more on intelligent robots in their work flows, the concern for human job replacement and robot autonomy rises. The increase of ecommerce has intensified order fulfillment requirements, which pushes enterprises to need faster order processing and delivery speeds. While the implementation of collaborative robots (cobots) have many benefits in terms of streamlining order fulfilment work flows, the full impact on human job replacement has yet to be determined. Read more
BlackBerry hosted a live unveiling of their newest smartphone, the KEY2, this Thursday. The company’s marketing strategies and messaging show that BlackBerry is aiming squarely at business professionals with its KEY2 smartphone. While this is the right move it may also be their only move. The KEY2 is very similar to the KEYone, however, does offer some improvements to the keyboard, memory configuration, rear camera and overall design. Learn more
Without competitive software, even the most advanced industrial PC (IPC) hardware will be left behind in the industrial IoT. As industry 4.0 advances, IPC manufacturers are being forced to adapt their offerings, tooling, and support to embrace the IIoT. Most IPC manufacturers are quickly expanding their strategic alliances with various software vendors, boosting the abilities of their hardware offerings in order to meet the needs of smarter and more connected industrial environments. Read more
In their WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) this Monday in San Jose, California, Apple unveiled a host of new software for their iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac that will be made available to the public later this year. The newest operating systems are the iOS 12 for iPhones and iPads and MacOS Mojave for Apple’s laptops and desktops. In addition to flashing their newest products and updates, Apple addressed iPhone addiction and data protection, thereby seizing the WWDC as an opportunity to paint themselves as a company that cares about the consumer. Learn more
In Part 1 of our NIWeek 18 blog, we featured an overview of some software-focused product announcements from National Instruments: LabVIEW 2018, LabVIEW NXG 2.1, and FlexLogger In Part 2, we continue the overview with a look at InstrumentStudio and SystemLink. Read more
The VDC embedded team was recently in Austin, Texas to attend NIWeek 2018 – National Instruments’ 24th annual conference. For a broad overview of this show, please see the related VDC View from Dan Mandell “NIWeek 2018: Instrumenting Industries for Intelligence”. As always, the event brought together leading customers, thousands of engineers, and other industry experts to hear the latest announcements and highlights of NI’s role in supporting cutting-edge test and measurement deployments. Read more
Direct sales over the internet currently generates less than 2% of the revenue for proximity sensors, photoelectric sensors, and limit switches. But use of this sales channel is forecast to grow at an average of 24% annually through 2022. This rapid expansion in the use of e-commerce by proximity sensor suppliers is disrupting market dynamics of a segment that has long been slow to evolve. Learn more
ServiceMax concluded its annual conference this week, in which the company showcased its offerings, the benefits it drives for its customers, and its partner network. CEO Scott Berg led the keynote address, which covered ServiceMax’s new features and its achievements over the past year. Berg encouraged attendees to consider three questions throughout the conference: how to optimize when service occurs, how to make the most of IoT, and how to engage with proactive and predictive maintenance. These issues tie together some of the most important issues and priorities in field service. Learn more
In the early days of the IoT, many industry participants had assumed that nearly all IoT device data and sensor data would be sent to the cloud for storage and analytics. As large scale implementations began to run, the sheer volume of raw data generated by IoT systems made it apparent that significant portions of data needed to be filtered and/or pre-processed to reduce the volume of data sent to the cloud, as well as latencies that might occur in sending and processing data in the cloud. Thus the concept of IoT edge computing was born. Read more
AWS showcased its constantly-evolving services portfolio at its 2 day AWS Summit London, a regional conference supplementing its annual flagship re:Invent in November. Day 1 centered around AWS developer and startup education, while day 2 featured a keynote by CTO Werner Vogels and UK & Ireland Managing Director Gavin Jackson. Read more
Hannover Messe 2018 took place from April 23rd through April 27th at the Hannover Fairground in Hannover, Germany, and was held in conjuction with CeMAT 2018, a trade fair centering on intralogistics and supply chain management. This year’s show drew approximately 210,000 attendees and featured 5,000 exhibitors from 75 countries including the 2018 official partner country, Mexico. Though attendance was down from last year’s record 225,000 visitors, the fairground’s five million square feet of exhibition space remained jam-packed from open to close each day. Learn more
While a decent chunk of retail organizations over the past few years have been increasing their in-store and online sales via investment in Omni-channel initiatives to keep up with the likes of Amazon, retailers like H&M have fallen behind. This can be seen most notably in H&M’s struggle to sell off $4.3 Billion of unsold inventory. As a way to combat their inventory problem H&M has been increasing the amount of markdowns they have, but this in turn has led to slipping sales and more importantly, lower profits. Learn more
This interview is part of an ongoing series VDC conducts with IoT and embedded solution providers to share views on their company, products, and state of the market. At Mobile World Congress in February 2018, the new company 1NCE announced a cellular-based NB-IoT communications service for the revolutionary price of only 10 euros for 10 years of service with up to 500MB of data transfer. Read more
MODEX is the premier tradeshow for supply chain and logistics solutions, powered by the MHI and held biannually in Atlanta, GA where industry leaders in AIDC and robotics display their latest technology. This blog will detail the latest announcements and provide commentary on the newest innovation unveiled at MODEX 2018. Read more
This interview is part of an ongoing series VDC conducts with IoT and embedded software solution providers to share views on their company, products, and state of the market. Nils Herzberg is the Global Head for the Go to Market Strategy for Internet of Things & Strategic Partnerships. Reporting to the General Manager for IoT & Digital Supply Chain, he drives major elements of SAP’s partnership strategy, customer strategy, and OEM strategy as well as focus scenarios, market units, and industries. Read more
As a global leader in enterprise labeling solutions with over 5000 customers in over 100 countries, Loftware Inc. aims to extend and synergize its global capabilities with its acquisition of UK based company and artwork management solutions provider, GAP Systems. This combination of enterprise labeling and artwork management solutions is poised to drive innovation and offer singular enterprise platform for labeling and packaging artwork requirements. Read more
VDC analysts Chris Rommel and Roy Murdock attended IBM’s new flagship conference Think 2018, held at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. IBM rolled a few of its previous conferences such as InterConnect, World of Watson, Amplify, Edge, and PartnerWorld into one mega conference attended by almost 40,000 customers, partners, and executives. Read more
In Part 1 of our MWC18 coverage, we featured info from the Mobile IoT Summit, and VDC’s pick for our Embeddy Award from the show. In Part 2, we highlight a selection of notable vendors on the trade show floor, as seen by VDC’s Roy Murdock and Steve Hoffenberg. Read more
At this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, IoT products and services took a giant leap forward. Unlicensed spectrum LPWAN products and services for IoT communications (such as LoRa, Sigfox, and Ingenu) have been available for several years. In prior years, offerings for licensed spectrum IoT services such as LTE Cat-M1 (a.k.a. LTE-M) and NB-IoT were mostly in the discussion and demo stages. Now, the sheer volume of announced IoT wireless modules and services for the licensed spectrum has ramped up, and many are already on the market. Read more
VDC Research will once again be attending Hannover Messe, the world’s leading trade show for industrial technology. This year’s show—which takes place from April 23-27 at the Hannover Fairground in Hannover, Germany—will feature more than 5,000 international exhibitors, 1,400 lectures and panels, and 200,000 attendees. Among the industry trends expected to emphasized by exhibitors, lecturers, and panel members at Hannover Messe 2018 are Industrie 4.0, integrated energy, smart supply, predictive maintenance, cobots, lightweight construction, and the digital twin. Learn more
Last week, the embedded engineering community migrated to Nuremberg, Germany for the 16th annual Embedded World conference. Embedded World is the epicenter of the IoT and embedded technology conference calendar with all of the global juggernauts coming together in one place to launch new products, unveil strategic collaborations, and set the future of embedded engineering. Read more
VDC Research attended the Embedded World 2018 conference in Nuremberg, Germany through three days during the week of February 26th packed full of face-to-face meetings with dozens of exhibitors. This year’s event was the 16th Embedded World conference and it continues to grow as the leading exhibition for global IoT and embedded technology providers. 1,021 companies from around the world exhibited throughout 6 massive halls and showcased to more than 32,200 embedded experts from 78 countries. Read more
VDC Research attended the Embedded World 2018 conference in Nuremberg, Germany through three days during the week of February 26th packed full of face-to-face meetings with dozens of exhibitors. This year’s event was the 16th Embedded World conference and it continues to grow as the leading exhibition for global IoT and embedded technology providers. 1,021 companies from around the world exhibited throughout 6 massive halls and showcased to more than 32,200 embedded experts from 78 countries. Read more
Wearable solution providers are discovering the importance of focusing on the business benefits that they can provide. It is not enough to offer a flexible platform upon which customers can build – wearable companies must work with partners and prospective customers to learn what metrics their solutions can improve and map a specific path to those goals. Many wearables companies have not approached the market with a business benefit framework, and these organizations have become mired in “pilot purgatory.” Appealing to forward-thinking research and development units, many wearable companies expect prospective organizations to view their products as enabling new workflows and driving business benefits. Learn more
Embedded Tech Trends 2018 highlighted several important trends impacting the markets for critical and intelligent embedded systems. Embedded Tech Trends is an annual business and technology forum where technology suppliers and media come together to discuss technology advancements, standards, and other important topics for anyone developing boards, systems, and software for critical and intelligent embedded computing. This year’s event was hosted last week in Austin, Texas with a focus on the “biggest technologies and brightest solutions” behind high performance computing problems in mission-critical environments. Read more
In Part 1 of our post about CES 2018, we looked at the rise of automotive technology at the show. In Part 2, we’ll discuss how and why consumers adopt smart home technology. And we’ll do so through a specific lens: five different products we saw at CES that can monitor and/or control the flow of water through the pipes. Unlike a Nest Thermostat or a Samsung Family Hub Smart Refrigerator, most visitors will never know these plumbing-related products are installed in the home. They have no bling value. Just to reiterate, we’ll be discussing these products as examples primarily to help illustrate the reasons consumers purchase smart home devices. Read more
Checkpoint Systems Inc. (a division of CCL Labels), a leader in electronic article surveillance (EAS) and RFID solutions for the retail industry, announced two new product offerings at the recently concluded NRF conference in New York. Thus, this blog will detail the latest products and the company’s outlook for the retail space in 2018. Read more