MOBODEXTER

Chandramouli Srinivasan

Target’s experimental smart home space – “Open House” is ready to blow your mind in San Francisco

This is an interesting display given that every Smart thing is brought into one place for a demo. Target

claims to be controlling all things using a single Mobile App like IFTTT. Many Smart Home Devices in the U.S. operate  on WiFi, Bluetooth & ZigBee. Every device manufacturer have their own gateway for aggregation.This display might actually throw light on the number of devices needed and the complexity existing to make devices of various manufacturer to work together to achieve a specific space. This is extremely challenging and I would expect Target to have a lot of SILO implementation that is struggling to talk to each other to accomplish automation of a specific use case for the user. This would be classic case of identifying IOT interoperability nightmare.

Strategy analytics reported top IOT Trends in 2015

Major trends predicted in IOT for 2015. As rest of the pieces of IOT emerge the one area that is lacking serious focus is security. Hence I have moved Security as top most item and moved other trends after security. As one of the other report stated companies like Google & Facebook already know much more about its user than the user itself.

The user gives away information in exchange of the service. The difference is between knowing vs. controlling. In IOT we are talking about giving control to AI algorithms to act on behalf of the user.

Here are the key trends

* Data privacy and ownership will become a prominent issue in IoT

* Security becomes paramount-risk-based security and context-based security emerges

* New developer and connectivity platforms will continue to emerge

* IoT becomes more personal: Mobile devices such as smartphones become a critical component of IoT

* Apps will dominate IoT user interaction in 2015. This is a move towards a richer, more interactive”web of things”

* IoT architecture will see more decentralization as elements move to the edge of the network

* Location-aware systems will gather pace in industries such as retail and smart cities

* New analytics tools will be needed to handle the diversity of IoT data

Pattern of Life Analytics(POL) & Internet of Things (IOT)

POL analytics is not restricted to military applications, although the recent uses of the term generally derive from military documents, specifically those of the NSA. As mentioned, the closest, most popular analogous term is “profiling”. The reported Target, Inc incident was about use of the information to focus marketing efforts on women it had identified as likely to be pregnant. Based on its data analytics, Target had sent pregnancy-related information to a high-school girl at her residence, also the residence of her parents. The angry father complained to Target, and then followed up with his daughter,  about whom he had not yet been informed that she was indeed pregnant.  That incident is an early, classic case of POL intelligence that illustrated the point that consumers do not welcome evident invasions of their privacy. This Target case could be considered to be classic POL analysis, or profiling.

Image Credit: pixabay

Kavitha Gopalan

Internet of things or IOT is moving from buzzword to a reality. It is finding its niche in sectors like home automation, health care, automobile and in various industrial sectors. Based on various surveys its expected that the connected devices market could grow from 14 billion devices today to the range of 50-100 billion connected devices by 2020. This would be a massive growth. There is no doubt that billions of connected devices will redefine the way we live our lives through the concept of connected homes, connected vehicles to connect cities. There are some challenges in IOT that has to be addressed for faster adoption and to make this dream a reality.

1. Enormous amount of data

IOT involves collection of massive amount sensor/actuator generated data . All this data needs to be stored in cloud. Management and maintenance of this amount of large data can get complicated. Another aspect is the data retention. How long and how much of this data will be retained should be thought and planned.

2. Privacy Concern

IOT’s intend is to design a smart intelligent devices that could act without or with minimal human intervention, For this the collected data should be shared, processed and analyzed . Some of this data carries personal and private information like user information, behavioral patterns, likes & dislikes, health information and so on. This data, at wrong hands could be fatal. So the question lingers in the minds of consumers, who is using my data and how is it used and is my data safe. Protecting the privacy of the data collected is one of the top challenges to be tackled.

3. Security

IOT, where billions of devices are connected on the internet is prone to security hacks. This could result in the misuse of both personal and corporate data. Most of the IOT devices that are available today are vulnerable to security threats. Data breaches are costly affairs. As per the Global Analysis, the average consolidated total cost of a data breach is $3.8 million – a 23 percent increase since 2013. Building security at every layer of the IOT system is important .

4. Interoperability

Next challenge is interoperability. When we come to the implementation there is no unified standard for IOT that is universally followed. This creates lot of confusion and complexity. There are multiple platforms, numerous protocols and numerous APIs. For example there are multiple communication protocols , each end device from different vendor has its own standard Bluetooth ,Zigbee, Ziwave, 6LoWPAN, 2G/3G/4G/LTE,BLE ,WiFi. The challenge is making these work together when they don’t follow a single standard. There are different bodies working to develop a standard framework for IOT like ALLJoyn Allseen Alliance , Open Interconnect Consortium , Industrial Internet Consortium which could help reduce the complexity in the system.

IOT has the true potential to shape human life. But these major challenges should be resolved for hassle free and quicker adoption of this technology across industries. The next wave of disruptive innovation is bound to happen in this technology space as consumers adopt this technology and we move towards a truly connected world.

Photo Credit: Canva

Srinidhi Murthy

Enterprises will drive IoT, M2M use – Research

Research Firm 451 Research has published its findings on IoT, M2M adoption and will be driven by enterprises. This is due to the decrease in pricing of Hardware and overall Bandwidth. Middle ware and Data Platforms based out of Cloud will allow for much easier and faster to gain access to previously unheard of amounts of Data and what can be done with it.

This research also points out that all these factors have lead enterprises of all sizes to adopt this model and this in turn drives the IoT and M2M use. In terms of wearables, the Research has found that 39 percent of IT decision makers in the U.S. who use or plan to use wearables will launch solutions in the next six months. The introduction of the Apple watch has started the wearable revelation and every company now wants to have a similar products and enterprises and end users alike are open to the idea of wearables. Its also points out that wearables might add in a key interface to Industrial IoT and its adoption.

http://www.channelnomics.com/channelnomics-us/news/2414075/enterprises-will-drive-iot-m2m-use-451-research

Security and Network Management are the biggest concerns for IOT / M2M

Most of the home automation products seem to be vulnerable to security. Recently many home automation products like Hubs and cameras have been hacked, allowing hackers to control or capture images and videos.

Network Management is another big concern. With so many products and so many IP addresses being added to a network, network management which seemed to a mundane task has suddenly come to the limelight. New ideas are being discusses to manage the same.

http://www.channelnomics.com/channelnomics-us/news/2370191/survey-security-network-management-top-iot-concerns

Chandramouli Srinivasan

Trust on internet and the business generated out of the internet is shifting to a different scale. KPCB research reveals a few key messages on the internet usage and a shift in business patterns emerging in different geographies like USA, China & India.

* Global Internet user growth is solid but slowing. Global Smartphone subscription growth is solid but slowing.

* Global internet usage growth is strong due to growth of Mobile & Video.

* Total internet ad revenue is 50B in which mobile ad contributes 13B.

* Ad Formats are getting optimized for Mobile – Vertical screen.

* Mobile instant messaging has evolved into a top platform across the globe.

* In developing countries smartphones account for only 26% of total phone market.

* USA market’s top consumer spending categories 1)Housing 2)Transportation 3)Food. Hence technology innovation is higher in this space in USA like airbnb, Uber, Instacart etc.

* Consumer Drone Usage – USA – 35%; Europe – 30%; China – 15%.

* Cyber Attacks are growing bigger and faster – Top Causes a) Insider misuse; b) Mobile devices used to harvest data.

* Big Internet market – China is #1 in internet user mass; India is #1 in new user additions.

* China is evolving into major hub of IOT market penetration.

* 65% of internet traffic in India are from mobile phones.

* 45% of e-commerce traffic in India are from mobile phones.

 Image Courtesy by pixabay

“Our products are not looking to provide a single dimensional security, rather focuses on multi-layered approach from chip to application – from devices to cloud; the aim is to provide additional security to the existing infrastructure by building the complete security stack by combining hardware and software”, explains Chandramouli Srinivasan(Mouli), CEO & President of MoboDexter.

Having spent a considerable amount time in the corporate world, he felt the itch to launch a startup. “I felt the need to challenge the status quo to deliver technical innovations on a different scale and identified mobile application space as the place where most innovation can be delivered on global scale for future devices,” says Mouli.

Read Our Story : http://yourstory.com/2013/12/mobodexter/

Kavitha Gopalan

Wearables are new revolution in Tech industry and its a fast growing business. Most of technology giants are investing in wearable  including Apple, Google, Samsung, Intel, Sony and others.  Smart watches, badges, Bracelets , fitness straps Pendants, glass, Shoes and dress are some which has already created enormous interest.

Though initially Wearables were used for fitness tracking and social activities it is finding its way into the  enterprise world .  IT leadership and other company decision-makers consider wearable tech as critical to future success  of their business.   One of the biggest advantage is the constant flow of data when using wearable which companies can use to reach employees and Customers.

Salesforce had conducted a survey on Wearable for  Enterprise ” Putting Wearable to work” and the results show where the IT industry is moving with Wearable devices.

Key take away include

* Wearable in enterprise are strategic to Business Success

* This industry is going to grow significantly in the next few years

* Interest to adopt Smart watches more than other wearables

* Wearable generated data will be enterprise game changer

* An expanding app ecosystem will fuel the enterprise wearable tech adoption

Many Industries are already using Wearable for their business operations. Top reason why Enterprise use wearables are for workplace include security access  , Employee time management, emails and staff communications on real time, work place productivity.

The other interesting use case model is using Wearables for customer centric operations. Examples could include real time access to customer data , providing field service guide also to deliver online coaching/ Training to employees , Augmented reality to guided workers efficiency and access to business analytics and alerts.

It can also be used for providing connected customer interaction like point of sale, immersive experience, rewards/loyalty points, targeted advertising , integrated shopping experience

Given the interest in Wearable in tech industry it looks like from BYOD we could be moving towards BYOW (Bring your wearable to Work) pretty soon.

The wearable for enterprise still at its nascent stage of development. One of the branching business opportunity from this would be the application development. High quality and robust apps for email messaging, efficiency and productivity tracking, training etc are needed. A strong app development eco system will propel the wearable for enterprise for wider adoption among companies.

Lower costs , devices that can better multitask and provide data security are the top motivators for adopting wearables in the enterprise.

This data is based on a survey “Putting wearable to work “See the complete data.

Chandramouli Srinivasan

Smartphone Market:

TrendForce has complied a market report on worldwide market shipment that reflects a few things about smartphone market & shipment.

– Global smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2015 (Jan-Feb-Mar) stood at 291.2 million units, down 9.2% compared to the last quarter of 2014. This means the market has shrunk in Q1. Primary reason quoted is slow down of smartphone sales in China. Is this an impact due to Chinese new year? or People waiting for newer phone to arrive?

The report also says that market will rebound in later half of 2nd quarter.

– The gap in market share between Samsung, the leader and Apple has grown to 7.9%. Apple has also shrunk its market share compare to Q4 (iPhone6 launched) by 3.3%. That brings the question if China and India are really helping Apple’s market share? Ofcourse, Apple will have a bigger revenue share.

– The gap is going to get wider in Q2 with Samsung Galaxy S6 due to which Samsung will ship over 80 million smartphone units in Q2 against Apple’s projection for 45 million smartphone to be shipped.

Read more here

http://www.gsmarena.com/trendforce_global_smartphone_shipments_declined_92_in_q1-news-11963.php

Chandramouli Srinivasan

To be sure, IOT is still in its infancy, but the details are getting clearer. As more and more devices are connected to the internet it’s apparent that the data between these connected physical devices will help people. But the thing is, we still can’t appreciate what the future holds for IOT.

Here are the top 3 insights from most influential technologist in IOT domain in the world:

Insight #1: We Haven’t Even Begun to Scratch the Surface of What’s Possible

Insight #2: In Terms of What is Possible, IOT and LOT Feel Utterly Limitless

Insight #3: IOT Will Reach Nearly Every Aspect of Our Every Day Lives

These are extremely encouraging predictions for technology as a companies set to resolve user problems by making things simple, smart & cost effective.

Read more here:

http://www.inc.com/john-rampton/introducing-the-top-30-internet-of-things-experts.html

Chandramouli Srinivasan

Facebook has evolved tremendously every year though they start as social networking platform. We see many apps already allow users to login using Facebook authentication. This means Facebook already provides APIs for application to leverage their authentication framework.

Here are the some key updates from the Facebook’s F8 conference:

– Facebook Messenger was the star of today’s keynote, with the biggest news being the addition of apps to the Messenger platform. Messenger is becoming a platform to integrate 3rd Party apps into the platform.

– Messenger will allow you to access a certain app directly within Messenger and add content from it.

– Facebook also is looking to make Messenger a tool for businesses, particularly online commerce.

-Facebook is also aiming to use Messenger to reinvent communication with businesses. The idea is that people hate touch-tone phone tree customer service calls. Endless email threads are annoying too. People would rather just text asynchronously in a single chat thread.

-People have started to post more photos and video and are now watching more than 3 billion videos a day in Facebook’s News Feed. That number is only going to get larger. Hence Starting today, Facebook is going to allow videos uploaded to the service to be embedded in other websites as well.

Check out these links for more information:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244353

http://gizmodo.com/facebook-is-finally-getting-messaging-right-1693590052

http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/25/facebook-launches-messenger-platform-with-content-tools-and-chat-with-businesses/

Photo Courtesy:Pixabay.com