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