The Week In Review: IoT

Consortia
Optimal+ said this week that it has joined the Industrial Internet Consortium. “The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) will have a tremendous impact on industries worldwide. The application of smart manufacturing, combined with the collection and analysis of in-use/field stage data, will deliver powerful insights to brand owners and enable them to achieve dramatic improvements in manufacturing operations. Optimal+ is pleased to join the IIC and looks forward to working with the organization to enable brand owners and their suppliers to measurably improve operational performance and product consistency across the global supply chain,” David Park, vice president of worldwide marketing at Optimal+, said in a statement.

Products
NXP Semiconductors unveiled its QorIQ Layerscape Secure Platform at the RSA Conference 2017 in San Francisco. The platform is said to enable developers of IoT equipment to build secure and trusted systems. Elements of the platform are the NXP Trust Architecture, the Secure Provisioning Tool, the Trusted Linux operating system, and the Network Security Suite.

Mentor Graphics reported that Phoenix Contact has adopted the company’s Valor IoT Manufacturing offering for factory automation. Phoenix Contact supplies device connectors, electronic components, and industrial automation technologies.

Altair Semiconductor, a Sony subsidiary, brought out the ALT1250 chipset for cellular IoT connectivity, targeting narrowband CAT-M1 and NB1 (NB-IoT). Among other features, the chipset integrates a GPS receiver. Sierra Wireless plans to use the ALT1250 in its IoT products.

Volkswagen has selected the AirPrime AR Series modules and the Legato software platform from Sierra Wireless for its next generation of connected cars. The integrated 4G technology will turn up in VW models next year.

Certified Security Solutions (CSS) has integrated CMT VerdeTTo with PTC’s ThingWorx IoT platform and made its CMT VerdeTTo Access Valve available in the ThingWorx Marketplace.

Deals
IBM announced Avnet, BNP Paribas, Capgemini, and Tech Mahindra will have development teams based at the Watson Internet of Things global headquarters in Munich, Germany, as “cognitive collaboratories,” working with clients and partners in the $200 million facility. BMW is also collocating research and development staff at the Watson IoT center. The IBM Watson IoT Platform is also being integrated with the Seebo software-as-a-service platform to develop IoT products.

Conferences/Events
Cadence Design Systems will showcase its Tensilica intellectual property for multiple applications at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, February 27-March 2. In addition to mobile use cases, the company will highlight its Tensilica digital signal processors for the Internet of Things, audio, automotive, consumer, and vision applications.

Microsoft is hosting an event on March 21-22 in San Jose, Calif., at the Fairmont Hotel. James Whittaker, Microsoft’s Distinguished Technology Evangelist, will be the keynote speaker. Other speakers include Tim O’Reilly, general manager of Microsoft IoT, and Carl Coken, general manager, IoT, OEM Technical Sales, Microsoft. The event is being staged in cooperation with ReadWrite. Details here.

Networks
Nokia will be at the Mobile World Congress to roll out its worldwide IoT network grid (WING), a virtual infrastructure of carriers, private networks, and satellite systems to provide seamless global IoT connectivity. The managed service is aimed at health, public safety, transport, and utilities.

AT&T said it would complete its LTE-M network for the IoT across the U.S. during the second quarter of this year. That coverage will be extended to Mexico by the end of 2017. The North American rollout follows a pilot program of the company’s LTE-M low-power wide-area-network at AT&T Labs in San Ramon, Calif.

Market Research
Technavio forecasts the worldwide IoT devices market will enjoy a compound annual growth rate of nearly 4% from 2017 to 2021, hitting $1.375 trillion four years from now. Google, Honeywell International, LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Seiko Epson, and Sony will be among the leading vendors in the IoT devices market. The company’s new report is available here.

The IoT platform market will be worth $8.8 billion this year, visiongain estimates. The firm has a new report available here.

Analysis
Home automation and security are key applications for IoT technology, this analysis asserts. “As the Internet of Things transforms the home security market, industry leaders and homeowners alike are changing the way they think about home security,” Dan Scalco of Digitalux writes.

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