Netclearance releases mBeaconVend, aims to give vending machines IoT boost

Picture credit: Netclearance

The humble vending machine, like so many other big, dumb machines, is ripe for disruption through Internet of Things (IoT) technologies.

Coca-Cola is leading the revolution, putting connected technologies in its machines to gauge temperatures, assess stock levels, and work out what brands are most popular. Indeed, according to a TechWeek Europe article last year, connecting a vending machine to the Internet was something the soft drinks giant had...

28 September 2016 | Enterprise

New research argues APAC building momentum in cellular IoT market

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The growth in cellular IoT connections is being further driven by the APAC (Asia-Pacific) market as well as the traditional bases of western Europe and North America, according to a new study from Beecham Research.

The report, the research firm’s latest global assessment of the cellular IoT connectivity market, argues that the number of cellular IoT connections, from 2G to 5G, will approach 1.22 billion in 2021, up from 261 million at the end of...

23 September 2016 | Enterprise

Manufacturing firms investing in IIoT data analytics – even if other areas are slowing down

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The rise of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) continues apace, but a new piece of research from Honeywell Process Solutions and KRC Research argues that many in the manufacturing industry are pushing ahead with their spending on data analytics – potentially at the expense of other areas.

The research, the findings of which appear in the report ‘Data’s Big Impact on Manufacturing’, found that of the more than 200 North...

13 September 2016 | Enterprise

Intel launches Joule: Analyst notes “respectable” post-PC performance

Picture credit: Intel

Among the plethora of releases, announcements and titbits to come out of Intel’s Developer Forum this week was the Intel Joule compute module, a developer platform aimed squarely at Internet of Things (IoT) development projects.

It perhaps didn’t garner the same amount of column inches as Project Alloy, Intel’s new virtual reality headset. Indeed, VR formed the bulk of Intel CEO Brian Krzanich’s keynote. In a Medium article, the...

18 August 2016 | Enterprise

John Deere: On partnerships, collaboration and security in IoT for agriculture

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“For us, it starts with the ability to precisely guide a machine – and then we are trying to put more and more smarts into everything we build.”

That one sentence from Lane Arthur (left), director of the Information Solutions Group at agricultural manufacturing giant John Deere, adequately sums up the company’s technological manoeuvres. For a firm which was founded in 1837, its recent forays into the Internet of Things (IoT)...

15 August 2016 | Enterprise

Why the IoT is a ‘tech breakthrough megatrend’…along with VR, AI, and more

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Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) has named the Internet of Things (IoT) alongside virtual reality, artificial intelligence and 3D printing as one of the eight core technological breakthroughs that the C-suite should “absolutely” consider.

Admitting that none of the technologies picked – including augmented reality, blockchain, drones, and robotics – would be of any surprise to CEOs given the “breathless” coverage often...

1 August 2016 | Enterprise

Anglian Water looking to smart metering in new trial

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Anglian Water, one of the largest water recycling and water providers in the UK, is working with communications infrastructure provider Arqiva to trial out a smart water metering service.

The move is in partnership with utility technology provider Sensus, whose smart water meters in residential and non-residential properties will record hourly usage readings and then report back to Anglian Water. The proposed move will enable Anglian to better identify...

7 July 2016 | IoT

Netherlands beats South Korea to the punch in rolling out nationwide IoT network

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It was a close run contest – but the Netherlands beat South Korea to announcing a nationwide network for the Internet of Things (IoT) by four days.

On June 30, KPN announced the deployment of a network based on the LoRa standard, which went live in November 2015 in Rotterdam and The Hague, with a rapid rollout beginning in early 2016, while on July 4 SK Telecom unveiled its grand plans for a nationwide LPWAN (low power wide area...

5 July 2016 | IoT

The IoT and the network: Why Wi-Fi is the horse to bet on

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We have all heard the statistics about the Internet of Things (IoT): 200 billion connected devices by 2020 according to Gartner; the global market to hit $1.7 trillion (£1.2tn) by the same year according to IDC. Yet the network capability underpinning it remains to be decided.

The industry has tried to plough some ideas and investment into the issue – in January, the Wi-Fi Alliance launched Wi-Fi HaLow, a new standard aiming for low power...

8 April 2016 | IoT

Verizon report asserts 2016 is the year IoT goes mainstream

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The enterprise is beginning to eclipse the consumer space for investment in IoT startups, according to the latest research from Verizon.

In the company’s latest State of the Market report, which collates usage data, interviews with Verizon customers and research from Oxford Economics, the telco argues enterprise IoT investment outstripped the consumer side by 75% in 2015; a major difference when compared to the previous year. The report also...

6 April 2016 | Enterprise