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// M&A, Strategies, Alliances //
ABB has acquired Keymile’s Communication Networks Business, in a move to expand its smart grid portfolio and ABB Ability suite. No extra details are being shared.
Intel is laying off up to 140 jobs in its IoT division, in the wake of its decision to exit low-power chips. The unit accounted for less than 5% of sales, on $721m last year.
Aggreko has acquired Younicos for $52m, adding the startup’s energy storage software to Aggreko’s mobile power leasing business – a $2.6bn business.
ARM has acquired Simulity, an embedded OS specialist with an eSIM portfolio, for £12m, only 9-months after equity firm Foresight bought it for £4m.
ABB has acquired Keymile Group, a railway communications specialist that will make ABB a major player in the European market. The 120 staff will join ABB’s Power Grids wing.
Jawbone is in liquidation, as the wearable maker has struggled in the past few quarters – falling from a peak valuation of $3bn. It will now pivot to focus on healthcare.
Toshiba is putting Landis+Gyr up for an IPO, as it struggles with its ongoing financial problems. It bought 60% of L+G’s smart metering and grid expertise for $2.3bn in 2011.
// Laws, Regulation, and Lawsuits //
The UK Information Commission has ruled that Google’s DeepMind breached UK NHS privacy rules, when the 1.6m patient records were shared as part of a machine-learning trial to help diagnose acute kidney injury (AKI).
Waymo has dropped key LiDAR patent claims against Uber, as its court case rumbles along, and will instead focus on the theft of trade secrets as the core complaint.
// Forecasts, Surveys. Reports, and Blue-Sky Thinking //
The smart meter market will grow at a CAGR of 10.8% between 2017 and 2025, according to Progressive Markets.
Inmarsat says that IoT environmental monitoring from agri-tech businesses is significantly accelerating the globalization of food production, using technology to meet increasingly strict government import and export regulations – according to Inmarsat’s research.
The IoT Integration market will hit $3.3bn by 2022, growing at a CAGR of 34.2%, according to MarketsandMarkets.
The M2M Connections market will hit $27.62bn by 2023, according to MarketsandMarkets, growing at a CAGR of 4.6%.
// Hardware //
Fujitsu and Cratus have announced a new jointly-developed reference design for Industrial IoT sensors, called BlueBrain and aimed at data acquisition, based on a Cortex-M4 MCU.
Toshiba has begun mass production of its ApP Lite processors, designed for wearables, following the reveal of its latest addition to the platform – the TZ1201XBG.
u-blox has launched the SARA-R410M-02B, which it says is the smallest multimode LTE Cat M1 (LTE-M) and NB1 (NB-IoT) modules available – at 16mm x 26mm.
// Software //
Saison and McAfee have partnered to launch a secure managed file transfer (MFT) middleware platform for IoT devices, integrating McAfee with HULFT IoT.
Mozilla has launched the Project Things IoT software framework for Raspberry Pi, an extension for the W3C’s Web of Things (WoT) project and a Pi gateway stack.
// Smart Homes and Buildings //
Apple’s HomeKit ecosystem is growing, fleshing itself out nicely in a list compiled by Digital Trends. The HomePod is positioned to act as a smart home hub.
// Automotive //
TomTom and Baidu have partnered to build HD maps for autonomous driving in China, and TomTom has announced that its HD maps now cover Western Europe.
Intercede has joined AESIN (Automotive Electronic Systems Innovation Network), and has also joined the UK’s TechWorks project, to promote its automotive security offerings.
TomTom and Cisco have announced a development project for traffic monitoring, using Cisco hardware and a Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) array to feed TomTom’s vehicle data platform (of over 500m devices), to offer to traffic management center customers.
Volvo has promised to end the sale of pure-gasoline vehicles in 2019, ensuring that all of its new cars will either be hybrids or pure EVs.
Velodyne and Autoliv have announced a LiDAR collaboration, to meet surging demand for LiDAR – using Velodyne’s software and ASIC engine, inside an Autoliv unit.
Inrix has launched what it claims is the industry’s first real-time on-street parking service in a connected car, housed inside a BMW 5 Series.
Volvo has picked Here to supply OTA updates to its Sensus Navigation system, pushing Here’s maps to its 90-series vehicles and the new XC60 premium SUV.
Comma.ai has launched Panda, a new OBDII dongle that will be paired with Comma’s Cabana software toolkit, to provide driver’s with aftermarket access to their auto data.
WISeKey has announced a deal with an unnamed automaker, to use its PKI platform for parts authentication and secure driver interactions with connected cars.
// Smart Cities //
Digital Trends takes a look at the smart city partnership between Panasonic and the city of Denver – an expansion of the Fujisawa project Panasonic debuted in Japan.
// Smart Grid & Utility //
Mount Pleasant Water Works (MPW) has picked Sensus to supply it with a $15m AMI system for its water utility business, in the town of Mount Pleasant in South Carolina.
Centrica has said it has installed 4m smart meters in the UK, since it began its roll-out 8 years ago. The UK has moved its national program deadline to 2025, but Centrica says it plans to cover all 18m of its customers by 2020.
GE and Fortrum have signed a 127MW hydroelectric pilot, using GE’s Predix platform, using GE’s APM Edge Analytics (iCMS) to run the Nordic energy producer’s infrastructure.
Enel and E-Distribuzione are planning the second-generation of Italian smart meters, with some 32m households and businesses and 41m meters to be covered in 15-years.
Toronto Hydro and eCamion have unveiled a new pole-mounted battery storage system, designed by Ryerson University, as part of a Canadian pilot that might become standard.
Tesla has been commissioned to build a 100MW / 129MWh battery in South Australia, the largest in the world, to help alleviate blackouts in the storm-ridden state.
// Health //
Vodafone and Smart Meter have partnered, working to add Smart Meter’s iGlucose diabetes monitors to Vodafone’s IoT networks globally. To provide connectivity.