On Target: Embedded Systems

CES 2016, Part 3: Wireless IoT Technologies Proliferate

Another of the trends that stood out most to VDC at this year’s CES was the ubiquity of wireless technologies. It was rare that any connected product on display did not include wireless, the most prevalent types being Bluetooth Smart, Wi-Fi, and ZigBee. Bluetooth Smart, also known as Bluetooth Low Energy (LE), is ideal for many wearable devices that will communicate with the user’s nearby smartphone. Wi-Fi is best for IoT devices in a home or small business environment, leveraging existing routers and networking for other PC and Internet communications. ZigBee is a short range mesh network with a communications... Read more →

IoT Market Complexity Demands Buyer Personas

The complexity of the market for IoT products and services creates enormous challenges for the IoT solution marketer. An unlimited set of applications, a complex ecosystem of partners and channels, a wide range of decision makers and influencers, and a continuously changing competitive set can leave the marketer forever chasing his tail. Critical decisions about the content, placement, and timing of marketing messages become extraordinarily difficult in the face of these complex and dynamic conditions. Observing these challenges, VDC undertook a disciplined search for tools and methods that could help IoT marketers think and act more strategically, and achieve better... Read more →

Community Development Critical for IoT Success

The IoT has democratized product engineering and innovation. Increasing device connectivity and open APIs are enabling new types of organizations and developers to innovate in a world previously confined to engineers with highly specialized skill sets. While the traditional embedded ecosystem and its engineers will remain at the heart of the IoT device movement, this new cadre of potential developers and entrepreneurs comprise an important part of the creative base designing future IoT systems. And from giant conferences to local maker fairs, the technology ecosystem has recognized the importance fostering the growth of this “citizen developer” community. In fact, VDC... Read more →

Lingering Thoughts from NIWeek 2015

VDC’s IoT and Embedded Technologies team recently attended NIWeek 2015 in Austin, TX. National Instruments (NI) put on an excellent conference and we had the opportunity to take in a great deal. There were inspiring and informative keynote presentations, great partner stories, the heat, interesting panel sessions, helpful one-on-one meetings with NI executives, the strange layout of the Austin Convention Center (it allegedly has a floor 2, but I’m not buying that), demos on the exhibit floor…and, well, did I mention the heat? The IoT / IIoT Centric Focus of NIWeek Regardless of the format – keynote, panels, demos, 1:1’s... Read more →

PubNub Taps IoT Niche with Real Time Data Streams

The tremendous growth potential of the IoT has created a market battle between many large, well-known companies such as Amazon, Cisco, Google, IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle. But how do smaller companies and startups become competitive in the race for IoT success? One answer: create or exploit a niche within the IoT. PubNub is a notable entrant in this respect. Streaming of real time data is useful in a variety of IoT applications, including finance, weather, traffic, communication, E-commerce, security, systems control, home and vehicle automation, advertising, and gaming. Since PubNub's founding in 2009, the company has firmly established itself in... Read more →

Samsung Invests in Sigfox. Is the Race Over for Long-Range Low-Power Wireless Competitors?

A preliminary market battle has been brewing over the past year between technologies to connect IoT devices via wireless wide area networks. These cellular-type networks allow very low power battery devices to transmit small amounts of data over several miles, a solution highly suitable to many types of IoT devices such weather sensors and smart meters. Entrants in this market include Sigfox, LoRa, and Neul. (In addition, standards organization IEEE is developing the 802.11ah wireless networking protocol for distances up to a kilometer.) Sigfox announced on June 15 that Samsung’s Artik IoT platform would integrate Sigfox support. Also, noted in... Read more →

Where To Next For PTC After ColdLight Analytics Acquisition?

At this month’s LiveWorx event put on by PTC (formerly known as Parametric Technology Corp.), the news highlight was the company’s acquisition of IoT analytics firm ColdLight. (See press release here.) ColdLight’s Neuron software for cloud or on-premise datacenters applies machine learning technology to M2M and IoT data, automating predictive analytics tasks. The ColdLight acquisition was a logical extension to PTC’s prior acquisition of ThingWorx and Axeda in the IoT space. At the front end of the product development process, PTC has assembled software offerings for product lifecycle management (Windchill), computer-aided design (Creo), application lifecycle management and systems engineering (Integrity).... Read more →

IBM’s $3 Billion Stake into IoT: A Low-Risk Gamble

IBM has announced it is establishing a new Internet of Things business unit with more than 2,000 consultants, researchers, and developers, and will invest $3 billion in it over the next four years. Three business areas are being highlighted: IoT Open Cloud Platform for Industries – vertical market oriented big data analytics services Bluemix IoT Zone – expansion of IBM’s platform-as-a-service to improve development and deployment of IoT apps IoT Ecosystem – additional partners for secure integration of IoT data and services (existing partners include AT&T and ARM) (We won’t rehash all the details of the announcement, which you can... Read more →

QNX Ex-Owner Harman International Acquires Red Bend Software

Harman International is best known as an audio electronics maker, owning numerous brand names targeting consumers and professionals, including AKG, Crown, dbx, Harman Kardon, Infinity, JBL, Lexicon, Mark Levinson, and Revel. As old-school “car stereos” have evolved in recent years into multifunction “infotainment systems,” Harman has also become a major player in automotive electronics. On January 22, Harman announced its acquisition for $170 million of Red Bend Software, which is the leading provider of software and services for Firmware Over The Air (FOTA) updating for mobile devices and automobiles. (See press release here.) Harman simultaneously announced its acquisition of software... Read more →

VDC Research is attending Embedded World 2015!

Contact us ASAP to schedule a meeting VDC will be making the trip across the Atlantic again this year to visit the largest embedded technology tradeshow of the year, Embedded World in Nuremberg, Germany. Last year, the conference boasted 26,700 visitors and 856 exhibiting companies!. While we are at the conference, we welcome the opportunity to meet with attending vendors to learn more about their embedded solutions and any show-related (or other recent) announcements. You can arrange a meeting time with VDC by contacting us directly. For meetings contact: André Girard, Senior Analyst, IoT & Embedded Technology, [email protected], 508.653.9000 x153;... Read more →