The Week In Review: IoT

Deals
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering was selected by zGlue as its strategic manufacturing partner. The ASE Group will make the zGlue Integrated Platform, which is said to enable customization for consumer and industrial IoT markets. The ZiP integrates hardware and software in a modular 3DIC-based platform. ASE will assemble zGlue-certified chiplets for connecting through zGlue Smart Fabric, a silicon interposer, onto ZiP hardware to create an IoT system.

A Qualcomm subsidiary has extended its tender offer for shares of NXP Semiconductors to September 22, 2017. As of Wednesday, August 23, American Stock Transfer & Trust reports nearly 23.5 million NXP common shares have been validly tendered, representing about 6.9% of NXP’s common shares outstanding. It’s been 10 months since NXP and Qualcomm signed their purchase agreement.

Analysis
More than 400 companies are currently offering IoT platforms, while only 14% of these IoT platforms are enterprise-ready, the Boston Consulting Group reports. IoT platforms should orchestrate applications, data, devices, processes, and systems with a scalable framework, this analysis notes.

More than 80% of manufacturers surveyed for The MPI Internet of Things Study say they are confident or very confident in their cyber risk management program, Rick Schreiber and Mike Dombrowski of BDO International write. “With careful consideration of cyber risk throughout each stage of research, development, production, and distribution, manufacturers can build robust defense networks against impending cyber threats,” they conclude.

Dan Woods interviews Tom Siebel, chairman and CEO of C3 IoT, about his second act in high tech, after selling Siebel Systems to Oracle. The first part is here and the second part is here.

Finance
Helios Wire, which is developing a satellite-based IoT service, reported receiving an additional $4 million in private funding; no investors were identified, nor was the amount of previous funding revealed. The startup in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, plans to use the new money to launch its first satellite by the end of this year, to be followed by two more satellites during the second half of 2018.

Products
SiFive will work with Rambus on providing cryptography cores and services to bolster IoT endpoint security in custom open source-based silicon implementing the RISC-V instruction set architecture. Rambus, SiFive, and others will collaborate under the DesignShare model to offer low-cost or no-cost IP to emerging companies. SiFive provides the SiFive Freedom platforms for developing chips with the open-source RISC-V technology.

Sequans Communications and Wistron NeWeb are making the IMS2 LTE-M module available through AT&T’s IoT Accelerator Program. The IMS2 is based on the Monarch LTE-M/NB-IoT Platform from Sequans.

The Linux-based Raspberry Pi is now supported by 42Gears Mobility Systems through its enterprise mobility management platform. With the EMM platform, enterprises will be able to manage IoT deployments of sensors and small handheld devices connected to the Raspberry Pi Gateway.

Telit has introduced the LM940 Full PCI Express Mini Card module for gateways and routers supporting LTE Advanced Category 11. IHS Markit forecasts gateway shipments will increase from almost 2 million units shipped last year to more than 6 million units shipped in 2021, with the value of industrial cellular IoT gateways shipped in 2021 exceeding $1.6 billion.

Services
Incedo has launched its IoT NXT portfolio of services for IoT implementations. These services include Smart Energy Management, Smart Fleet Management, and Smart Oil Field Management. The technology services firm also debuted IoT NXT Lab, a place in Bangalore, India, where Incedo and its clients can work together on research, innovation, and collaboration for ideas.

The Netzikon subsidiary of telent will employ Arkessa’s connectivity management, network roaming, and localization offerings to deliver digital services for intelligent equipment, using LoRaWAN radio technology.

Market Research
Frost & Sullivan forecasts the total number of IoT devices will increase from about 12.44 billion devices in 2016 to more than 45.31 billion devices by 2023, for a compound annual growth rate of 20.3%. The market research firm predicts these IoT developments in the next 12 to 18 months: Transition from connected devices to the use of cognitive or predictive computing and sentient tools; use of artificial intelligence to transform smart devices so they can react to changes in the environment without human intervention; increased commoditization of platforms; a boom in drone delivery and the use of drones to monitor remote wildfires, cell towers, and electric lines; and unsecure devices and malware escalate cyberattacks, making IoT a national security hazard. Go here for details on Frost & Sullivan’s report, “Growth Opportunities for Service Providers in the Internet of Things.”

Research and Markets predicts the worldwide IoT market in oil and gas will be worth $30.57 billion by 2026. Its report on this market can be ordered here.