Theatro Raises $5m to Accelerate Development of Enterprise Wearables

26 August 2014 – Theatro, a pioneer of voice controlled wearable communications devices for hourly workers in the retail, hospitality and manufacturing market segments, announced today that it has closed a $5 million investment from Khosla Ventures in a Series A round.  After securing early backing from an “A-list” of angel investors, this round brings the total investment in Theatro to $8.8 million.  Ben Ling, investment partner at Khosla Ventures, who served in senior operating roles at Google, YouTube and Facebook, led the investment and has joined Theatro’s board of directors.  The capital will be used to help Theatro aggressively expand its sales and marketing efforts as well as broaden and accelerate product innovation.

“Improving workforce productivity and customer satisfaction is at the heart of Theatro’s suite of products and is a major challenge for most retailers,” said Ling. “We are excited to work with Theatro during their next phase of growth as they roll out the service to retailers across the nation.”

“Hourly employees are one of today’s most valuable workforces, and they could be more effective and productive with innovative technology tools available to them,” said Chris Todd, Theatro CEO.  “Ben Ling and Khosla Ventures share our vision of the prominent impact that enhanced enterprise communications can have on mobile workforces by connecting employees to one another while they’re on the job and also to their company’s business information.  We are very excited to be teaming with KV as we redefine the future of this important and growing workforce”.

The Series A financing builds on the continued momentum of the company since announcing the commercial availability of their SaaS offering in December 2013.   The company is rapidly growing with a notable list of national retail clients and opened a research and development (R&D) center in Bangalore, India in February of 2014.

About Theatro
Theatro has pioneered the market’s first voice-enabled enterprise wearable coupled with a software suite of productivity applications for brick and mortar retail, hospitality and manufacturing enterprises.  Our “Heads-Up and Hands Free” mobile communications and management solution, delivered over the in-store WiFi to every hourly employee, is the perfect solution for on the move workforces. To discover how Theatro can help with hourly worker productivity, please visit www.theatro.com

About Khosla Ventures
Khosla Ventures provides venture assistance and strategic advice to entrepreneurs working on breakthrough technologies. The firm was founded in 2004 by Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems. With over three billion dollars under management, the firm focuses on a broad range of areas including consumer, enterprise, education, advertising, financial services, semiconductors, health, big data, agriculture/food, sustainable energy and robotics. Khosla Ventures is headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif. For more information, visit www.khoslaventures.com

Vodafone Report Shows Asia Pacific Leading Adoption of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Solutions

21 August 2014 -Vodafone today published its second annual 'M2M Adoption Barometer', a global survey of the machine-to-machine (M2M) market, which finds that companies in Asia Pacific were among the leaders in M2M adoption globally.

In 2014, 27% of Asia Middle East and Asia Pacific (AMAP) based companies on average have adopted M2M solutions -- a 15 point increase over 2013. Average adoption rates were 21% in Europe and 17% in the Americas. Other report highlights include:

• Surging global demand as M2M adoption increases by more than 80% in the past year
• AMAP powers ahead of US and Europe in M2M take-up
• Region expected to lead global adoption rates over the next two years
• More than a fifth of global companies have implemented M2M, expected to be 55% in 2016
• Consumer electronics is recognised as fastest growing sector, along with automotive

M2M, which connects previously isolated machines or devices to the internet to make the 'Internet of Things' possible, is now a mainstream solution as 22% of organisations on average globally have adopted M2M, an impressive increase of over 80% on last year; the survey findings suggest.

The survey, carried out by Circle Research, captured the views of more than 600 executives-- 38% of whom were from the AMAP region -- involved in setting M2M strategy in seven key industries across 14 countries, making it one of the leading global surveys of M2M implementation.

The 2013 Vodafone M2M Adoption Barometer report had predicted that the US will be overtaken by the AMAP region as the geography with the widest adoption of M2M. The 2014 survey now predicts that the AMAP region will continue to lead the rest of the world over the next couple of years -- with adoption expected to hit 48% on average across companies based in this region in 2015. This year's report also suggests that by 2016 the gap will be negligible with all regions close to 55% average for adoption.

Globally three sectors have emerged as front runners in M2M with nearly 30% adoption rates: automotive, consumer electronics, and energy and utilities. Vodafone's report shows that the consumer electronics sector is at the forefront of a shift from the warehouse to the living room. Automotive is the most mature of the sectors where M2M is now seen as an enabler for additional services such as remote maintenance and infotainment. M2M adoption in energy and utilities is also growing rapidly as 'smart' home and office services such as intelligent heating and connected security gain popularity.

While more firms are seeing a return on investment from M2M than last year -- 46% of respondents cited a 'significant increase' compared with 36% in 2013 -- there are still some barriers to adoption, including managing security concerns and the challenges of global deployment.

Director of Machine-to-Machine in Asia Pacific, Vodafone, Niklas Ekarv said: "This year's report findings leaves no doubt that momentum is accelerating as companies inAsia Pacific begin to realise the commercial potential of the Internet of Things. Machina Research expects M2M connections inAsia to grow at a CAGR of 20% till 2023*. This technology is transforming whole industries acrossAsia as companies find new ways to operate and engage with their customers.Greater China is expected to dominate Asian M2M revenues as per Machina Research; followed byJapan, India, Korea and Australia. Vodafone has invested in capabilities acrossAsia Pacific to become the provider of choice for M2M solutions."

Principal Analyst at Machina Research, Alex Chau, said, "We estimate that the market inAsia Pacific is expected to grow to over 9.4 billion connections by 2023 and is expected to be worth overUS$679 billion in revenues -- a 4x multiplier increase over 2013. Vodafone's M2M Barometer report indicates just how fast M2M is being adopted. M2M technologies are being used more and more to drive efficiency and add new features, giving companies a competitive edge. It is also starting to facilitate new ways of working, fundamentally changing how organisations do business and how they serve their customers."

The report is available to download from https://m2m.vodafone.com/barometer2014.

About Vodafone Machine-to-Machine (M2M)
Vodafone Machine-to-Machine (M2M) connects previously isolated machines or devices to the internet, delivering new functionality and enhanced services without the need for human intervention. Supported by more than 250 dedicated employees, Vodafone's global M2M platform makes it easy for global businesses to manage centrally M2M deployments across multiple territories, with greater control and at a lower cost than previously possible. In 2014 Vodafone was named global M2M leader by Machina Research, for the third year in a row. For more information, please visit: https://m2m.vodafone.com/home/.

About Vodafone
Vodafone is one of the world's largest telecommunications companies and provides a range of services including voice, messaging, data and fixed communications. Vodafone has mobile operations in 27 countries, partners with mobile networks in 48 more, and fixed broadband operations in 17 markets. As of31 March 2014, Vodafone had 434 million mobile customers and 9 million fixed broadband customers. For more information, please visit: www.vodafone.com.

Source: Vodafone

Robert Bosch Venture Capital Leads $3.75m Series A round for Flybits

20 August 2014 - Flybits Inc., a Toronto start-up that has created a context-aware experience development platform for mobile environments, has closed a $3.75 million Series A financing. Led by Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH (RBVC) and Trellis Capital Corporation with participation from MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund and Ryerson Futures, Inc., the investment will advance the company's product development and international growth in the United States and Europe.

Since spinning off from Ryerson University in 2012, Flybits has raised a total of $4.05 million to date, including a seed round from MaRS Innovation. Flybits technology has been used in developing smarter cities, connected stadiums, smart corporate campuses, shopping malls, conference venues and even fashion shows. The company also concurrently incubated its technology at the Ryerson Digital Media Zone in Toronto and Vodafone Xone in Redwood City, California.

"Flybits is RBVC's first investment in Canada," said Luis Llovera, managing director of Robert Bosch LLC based in Palo Alto, California. "The company has demonstrated a unique and innovative approach in building foundational technology to deliver Contextual Mobility Services for both display-driven devices and for the emerging Internet of Things applications. Flybits' strong roots in tangible and high impact R&D, their ability to predict the required infrastructure for the industrial Internet and their global entrepreneurial ambitions were some of the reasons we were attracted to this company."

"Involving high-quality investors such as Bosch and Trellis demonstrates the potential in our unique approach to designing Intelligent Mobility Solutions that are intuitive and scalable," said Dr. Hossein Rahnama, CEO and founder of Flybits. "In particular, having Bosch as a strategic investor means we leverage their global expertise in software automation, connected communities and sensor technologies as we support new and existing international customers, and scale and develop both our team and our products."

"Recognizing the Flybits' platform potential to create next-generation mobile experiences at an early stage, MaRS Innovation worked closely with Flybits to launch the company and secure initial market traction," said Dr. Raphael Hofstein, president and CEO of MaRS Innovation.

Flybits' intuitive visual platform is so easy to use that users can build unique contextual experiences without sophisticated IT or other technical integration. Flybits' goal is to build a platform that allows anyone to create context-aware mobility experiences without worrying about semantic analysis or context processing.

"Flybits is a great example of how innovation is becoming global and borderless," said Mr. Werner Wnendt, German Ambassador to Canada. "Connecting industrial powers like Bosch in Germany to a unique and promising Canadian university start-up is a very exciting, innovative collaboration between Germany and Canada. It shows how fruitful the cooperation of our two countries is in the sphere of science and technology. I had an opportunity to visit Flybits last year and I am pleased that Bosch has decided to accelerate its growth."

About Flybits
Flybits is a young and hyper-innovative software company based in Toronto with smaller offices in London and New York. Flybits develops tools that allow users to create predictive and context-aware computing environments for mobile, wearable and connected devices. Flybits leverages the exponential growth of data, augments it with sensing capabilities and enables its users to intuitively create and customize a unique contextual experience for their entity of interest. www.flybits.com.

About Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH (RBVC)
RBVC is the corporate venture company of the Bosch Group, a leading global supplier of technology and services. RBVC invests worldwide in innovative start-up companies at all stages of their development. Its investment activities focus on technology companies working in areas of business of current and future relevance for Bosch above all automation and control, energy and environment, enabling technologies, and healthcare. RBVC also invests in services and business models as well as new materials that are relevant to the above-mentioned areas of business. www.rbvc.com.

About Trellis Capital Corporation
Trellis Capital Corporation (Trellis) is a private venture capital fund that invests in small to mid-sized Canadian companies in select technology-based sectors. Trellis' investment activities focus on innovative companies with highly scalable and capital efficient business models that have the potential to be disruptive in their respective markets. Trellis provides capital, expertise, and a network of contacts to the companies it invests in, as well as assists in their expansion into emerging markets if the opportunity exists. www.trelliscapital.com.

About MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund
The Investment Accelerator Fund (IAF) (@MaRSIAF) provides seed funding to qualified emerging companies in Ontario. A critical component of the Ontario Network of Entrepreneurs (ONE), the IAF supports the launch and development of innovative companies in Ontario's priority sectors of information technology, advanced materials and manufacturing, cleantech and life sciences. To learn more, visit http://iaf.marsdd.com.

About Ryerson Futures
Ryerson Futures Inc. (RFI) is an accelerator for early stage companies connected to the Digital Media Zone at Ryerson University.  RFI invests in early stage technology companies and brings their products to market through an extensive global network. www.ryersonfutures.ca.

About MaRS Innovation
As the commercialization agent for 15 of Toronto's and Canada's top universities, hospital and research institutions, MaRS Innovation (MI) works on the behalf of its members to take their most promising research breakthroughs from the lab bench to the market. www.marsinnovation.com.

Source: Flybits Inc.

Continental Sets up Intelligent Transport System Division in Silicon Valley

18 August 2014 - Continental, a leading international automotive supplier and industry partner, today announced that it is putting together an international team of innovators from the IT and automotive industries to focus on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS).

The new business unit, called "Continental Intelligent Transportation Systems, LLC", will be headquartered in Silicon Valley, California, USA, and headed by Seval Oz, an expert in vehicle networking and automation. In her previous role she worked on Google's self-driving car project.

"This step is an excellent example of our strategy to make the car an integral part of the 'Internet of Everything', said Dr. Elmar Degenhart, CEO of Continental. He added. "Our key objectives include eliminating road accidents, minimizing energy consumption, maximizing comfort and usability of vehicles, and enabling them to exchange information with each other in real-time. Our new team will be combining some of the key strengths required to create this kind of pioneering innovation – these strengths include the know-how and inventiveness of Silicon Valley's leading experts in digital technology and the expertise of Continental in developing unique and reliable solutions for large-scale automotive production."

Three out of every four cars around the world today contain Continental's solutions, products, and systems that make driving safer, more environmentally compatible and more comfortable. ITS is the extensive, intelligent networking of modes of transport and traffic facilities, through which vehicles will become part of a new traffic guidance system. The networked vehicle (NV) – or connected car – and ITS are seen as essential technology for future transportation.

"ITS opens up many new business opportunities for Continental. Our new business unit will further enhance our competitiveness in this market," said Helmut Matschi, member of Continental's Executive Board and President of the Interior Division. "That's why we have chosen Silicon Valley as our new location. In addition to our existing competence, the Bay Area has the technology and talent for developing connected cars and ITS that we need to build solutions for more than just prototypes."

"I'm incredibly excited to lead Continental's ITS team in the direction of developing world-class engineering services. Our mission is to dramatically improve mobility and safety by forging strong partnerships in both the tech and automotive realm," Oz said.

Continental is already one of the main suppliers of core ITS components. ITS provides the perfect platform to find solutions to global transportation problems such as gridlock, traffic-induced pollution, and accidents caused by human error.

Networked vehicles, which can instantly communicate with each other and with the infrastructure, open up a whole range of possibilities for new user functions. Intelligent applications will make driving safer, more comfortable and more environmentally friendly. Such applications include using data from other vehicles and the infrastructure, or a backend (the cloud), to inform the driver about dangers or obstacles along the route as well as other inputs such as travel, fleet, and traffic management. For the development of such solutions data protection is of utmost priority.

To develop world-class systems, Continental has already signed partnership contracts with the leading technology suppliers in big data (IBM), trusted security (Cisco) and maps (Nokia HERE).

Oz, the CEO of the new company, will be responsible for all new business and activities connected with Continental's ITS endeavors worldwide.

"She brings with her a wealth of experience in the field of vehicle networking and infrastructure. She is the ideal candidate to take on this leadership position," said Matschi.

In her previous position Oz served as Senior Business Development Manager at Google Inc., where she was integral in the business development and marketing efforts surrounding the launch of the self-driving car. She was presented with the PWI Women in Technology Award for Courage in San Francisco this year. She received her MBA with distinction from the Wharton Business School. She also graduated cum Laude from Wellesley College and M.I.T. with a degree in economics and political science.

About Continental

With sales of around €33.3 billion in 2013, Continental is among the leading automotive suppliers worldwide. As a supplier of brake systems, systems and components for powertrains and chassis, instrumentation, infotainment solutions, vehicle electronics, tires, and technical elastomers, Continental contributes to enhanced driving safety and global climate protection. Continental is also an expert partner in networked automobile communication. Continental currently employs around 186,000 people in 49 countries.

Source: PRNewswire

Samsung Acquires SmartThings for IOT

14 August – Today SmartThings, an internet of things (IOT) company focusing on the smart home market,  announced that it was acquired by Samsung . SmartThings CEO Alex Hawkinson announced the news in a post in which he stated that SmartThings will continue to operate as an independent company within Samsung’s Open Innovation Center group. “It has always been our goal to create a totally open smart home platform that brings together third-party developers, device makers, and consumers,” he said, adding “We will continue to run SmartThings the way we always have: by embracing our community of customers, developers, and device makers and championing the creation of the leading open platform for the smart home.”

Whether he is able to keep his promise remains to be seen. Based on comments to his post, many of SmartThings’ customers appear highly doubtful. In any event, whether SmartThings remains open is not entirely up to Samsung and SamrtTings. They are at the mercy of market forces and will need to craft and adapt strategies in anticipation of and in response to competitors’ game plans.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed but Samsung is rumoured to have paid $200m. If this turns out to be the case, then based on Google’s $3.2bn acquisition of Nest, Samsung appears to have got a bargain. An alternative perspective is that $200m is generous given PTC’s acquisition of better established ThingWorx and Axeda platforms for $130m and $175m respectively.

The IOT land grab is on and platforms are natural battlegrounds. However, not all platforms are created equal. Moreover, with every major (and many second and third-tier) software vendor, system integrator, network operator, virtual network operator and equipment vendor claiming to have an IOT platform, consolidation is inevitable, but confusion will reign for some time. Watch this space.

Source: SmartThings

Indiana State Chooses SAP HANA Platform

12 August 2014 - SAP today announced that the State of Indiana has chosen the SAP HANA platform as the foundation for a management initiative, driven by Governor Mike Pence, to improve data efficiency across state government.

The project, dubbed the Management and Performance Hub (MPH), will empower state leaders and citizens alike to track the state's progress against government key performance indicators and be used to initiate targeted policy solutions for Hoosiers. The state's MPH initiative will make use of SAP HANA in combination with SAP Predictive Analysis and SAP Lumira software.

As part of the state's efforts to build on its foundation of strong financial and performance management, Governor Pence tasked his Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Indiana Office of Technology to develop a comprehensive enterprise-wide data-driven management system. The MPH project will create a "citizen-centric" IT architecture that places government's constituents at the center of all interactions, as is increasingly the case in the private sector. The MPH project is seen as an opportunity to improve service and drive efficiency, and also as a chance to use advanced data analytics to address some of the state's most stubbornly complex governing challenges.

Currently, some state data reporting is done on a monthly basis and in some cases is not automated, requiring human staff to aid in tabulation. When the MPH project goes live, all those processes will be automated, minimizing ad hoc reporting and manual entry. State leaders and residents will be able to track government performance in near-real time, using SAP HANA. Agency heads and executive management will be able to combine and cross-check vast volumes of information to glean insights that were previously too complex to obtain.

Foremost among Indiana's complex public administration challenges is its infant mortality rate. While Indiana enjoys a strong fiscal position and has bounced back well from the recession by growing private sector jobs, it has persistently experienced an infant mortality rate above the U.S. average. The state plans to use insights from the MPH project to understand and address the multifaceted causes of infant mortality as they are specifically playing out for Indiana residents and communities.

"Governor Pence is a firm believer in data-driven decision making, and has challenged us to pull all agency resources and data to examine this problem in ways no government entity has ever done," said Chris Atkins, OMB Director and CFO, State of Indiana. "We knew that sorting through multiple agencies' data, and parsing more than 50 data sets would require unique and powerful solutions. When examining our processing options, SAP products kept coming to the top of the list. Its hardware and software has played an essential role in launching MPH."

SAP HANA, with in-memory database, data processing and application platform capabilities, essentially eliminates data redundancy and latency. This makes it an ideal platform for quickly combining and analyzing the data in complex public administration challenges like infant mortality, which can be affected by diverse factors ranging from environmental pollutants to maternal health to crime. The combination of SAP HANA, analytics solutions from SAP and SAP Lumira with SAP Mobile Platform is enabling state and local leaders to closely manage their communities in partnership with citizens.

Partnering with Mobile Citizens
In Rock Hill, South Carolina, a city of nearly 70,000 located just south of Charlotte, NC, city leaders and engaged residents are also using SAP solutions to track government performance. Rock Hill, with the help of implementation partner CIPHER Business Solutions, has deployed the CitizenInsight mobile app, which combines analytics solutions from SAP, the SAP Strategy Management application and SAP solutions for enterprise performance management. Strategic planning and performance measurement play an important role in guiding budget discussions and directing employee work programs. The app, which can be downloaded from the iTunes app store by anyone, provides scorecards across city departments including public safety and public works. Using these, citizens and city leaders can explore the city's performance against multiple measurements, encouraging citizen engagement and real-time accountability.

By continuously tracking performance, elected officials and staff are able to make informed decisions about future projects, based on data and experience. This commitment leads to a variety of successes, including tourism, redevelopment and jobs, as well as quality of life initiatives. In fact, Rock Hill was named on the "100 Best Communities for Young People" ranking five times by the America's Promise Alliance.

"Citizens deserve to be given options to interact with their city government in a way that's convenient and reliable," said David Vehaun, City Manager, Rock Hill. "The performance dashboard offers interested citizens a user-friendly way to stay informed and connected. CitizenInsight plays a valuable role in communicating our goals, successes and challenges in a clear, meaningful way."

CitizenInsight is also being used by leaders and citizens in the City of Boston, having been designed collaboratively by the City and SAP.

About SAP
SAP, a  market leader in enterprise application software, helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 261,000 customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably.

Source: PRNewswire

Brazil Exports First M2M-enabled Aircraft for the Military

Guest post by Eva Enanoria, LeadingQuest.
Drones are one of the many applications that involves M2M communication technology today. These M2M-enabled aircrafts, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), do not have a human pilot aboard and rely mostly on onboard computers that are controlled remotely. As the concept of connected and driverless cars is gradually being adapted, pilot-less aircrafts have long been made a reality. In fact, military agencies all over the world have been using drones and other remotely controlled machines and devices in their operations. In fact, the U.S. military recently deployed a drone force in Nigeria, an African country, to help look for the hundreds of women kidnaped by the Moslem militant group, Boko Haram. Considering Africa's current regional arms race, alternative probably candidates embody African nation, which features a long-standing border dispute with Morocco, and Egypt, which is battling Sunni rebels in the peninsula.
Nevertheless, these M2M-enabled aircrafts are not simply employed in military warfare. Some M2M applications involving drones are also used in a small but increasing number of civil applications such as firefighting and other non-military security work like pipelines and surveillance. Recently these M2M-enabled aircrafts are also used for commercial purposes such the Amazon Prime Air that picks up and delivers packages through a drone aircraft.
More recently, the São Paulo-based FT Sistemas S.A, one of the country's large producers of UAV, will soon have the first Brazilian-made drone to be heading to Africa. The company did not disclose details about the said project, but confirmed that this will be done before the end of the year. The Horus is an exploration, military vehicle and too lightweight to hold artillery and weapons. The M2M-enabled aircraft's infrared capabilities enable ground troops to recognize targets in real time from an instrument that may be conducted by troopers on the ground. It weighs approximately fifteen pounds, thereby making the M2M-enabled aircraft to be transportable by foot troopers.
“The Horus FT-100 was designed in conjunction with the Brazilian Army, to be used in typical applications of short range performed by platoons, companies or even battalions,” according to FT Sistemas S.A in a statement last July 28.
Brazil is obviously becoming a major participant in the modern military equipment such as these M2M-enabled aircrafts, particularly in emerging and growing markets that cannot afford expensive military equipments from Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Corporation or Britain's BAE Systems PLC. Even so, the market is still highly dominated by Israel and the US.
A statement from IHS Jane's Defence Industry said:“The UAV market remains dominated by the U.S. and Israeli defense contractors, but other nations have been heavily investing in the technology, especially for more cost-effective, less technologically advanced solutions”.
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Vodafone powers NZ’s first digital advertising billboards

The first interactive LED billboards in New Zealand have gone live in Ponsonby, Eden Terrace and Parnell, bringing a piece of Times Square to Auckland. The content is delivered in real time by Vodafone using Machine to Machine (M2M) technology over the mobile network, negating the need for additional cabling and infrastructure.
Extensive testing over the last 12 months has ensured that the billboards – owned and operated by APN Outdoor and supported by Ngage Media – run seamlessly over the M2M mobile network.
The system uses Aerva technology, software that allows the audience to interact with the billboards via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, RSS feeds, pic-to-screen, or text-to-screen.
Vodafone's M2M router can be installed and configured in minutes and offers global functionality, meaning it can be deployed anywhere in the world. The company has over a million M2M connections in New Zealand.
Vodafone's Head of M2M, Tony Bacon says that digital signage is recognised as a growth sector worldwide. “Advertisers are starting to realise that the cost to print is unattractive when considering digital media. Digital allows the vendor to renew their advertising message in real time to suit time of day, weather conditions and other environmental variables.”
“We're also seeing companies adopt digital media as a way to broadcast internal communications,” Tony continues. “Strategically placed screens around the office or factory keep staff updated on company news, the latest campaigns and provide important OSH reminders. Using the mobile network means avoiding additional infrastructure costs and provides the ability to change out campaigns very quickly.”
Ngage Director, Alan Nicholas says digital-out-of-home is the fastest growing medium after mobile.
“It's a $15billion industry and growing at 23% per annum. Digital signage, mobile and Wi-Fi will be the key methods advertisers use to communicate to the market. Billboards will feed you personalised information, make decisions on what to display according to who is looking at it – and will identify viewers by the mobile in your pocket.”
Nicholas continues: “We're moving fairly rapidly to a time when what appears on screens and what happens to get it there will be far more than a simple case of operators telling machines what to play and when. Right now, a person managing and scheduling a network is something of a musician. Soon, those people will be arranging and conducting orchestras, with many, varied instruments (those things) potentially adding to the sound.”
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Eurotech Signs Distribution Agreement with Mouser Electronics

Eurotech, a leading supplier of embedded technologies, products and systems, today announced they have signed a distribution agreement with Mouser Electronics, a worldwide distributor of semiconductors and electronic components.
Under the terms of the agreement, Mouser Electronics will promote and resell Eurotech's portfolio of products to their customers including embedded boards and modules, M2M devices and systems, and M2M software and tools to enable the Internet of Things.
Hilary Tomasson, Vice President of Marketing for Eurotech North America, said:
“Mouser specializes in new product introduction, giving designers, developers, engineers and buyers a place to find the latest in electronic technologies to help them develop next generation projects. The distribution agreement with Mouser will give us visibility to people on the front end of the design process as they look for solutions to enable the Internet of Things.”
“Selection, speed and accuracy are at the core of our operations, and distributing Eurotech products will allow us to offer more industry-leading solutions in our portfolio,” said Jeff Newell, Sr. Vice President of Products, Mouser Electronics.
“Our customers are looking for new technologies to simplify new product introduction and connect to the Internet of Things, and Eurotech is known for M2M solutions that speed time to market.”
Mouser offers customers 20 global support locations and stocks the world's widest selection of the latest semiconductors and electronic components for the newest design projects. Mouser Electronics' website is updated daily and searches more than 8 million products to locate over 2 million orderable part numbers available for easy online purchase with no required minimum order.
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u-blox acquires IP for industrial Wi-Fi

Antcor acquisition strengthens u-blox' technology for robust short-range connectivity.
Swiss u-blox (SIX:UBXN), a leading provider of wireless and positioning semiconductors and modules for the automotive, industrial and consumer markets, has acquired the company Antcor, a developer of Wi-Fi baseband intellectual property (IP).
The acquisition consists of a purchase of 100% of the shares of Antcor Advanced Network Technologies S.A. at a price of EUR 5.2 million (CHF 6.3 million), in addition to an earn-out which offers the sellers the possibility to participate in certain future revenues of the company.
The transaction gives u-blox immediate ownership of advanced Wi-Fi core technology that will enable the company to develop ruggedized communication solutions tailored to demanding environments.
Thomas Seiler, u-blox CEO, said:
“The acquisition of Antcor's technology and expertise significantly strengthens our chip design capabilities for short range wireless communications. Their technology is a perfect complement to our wireless communications and global positioning activities and expands our ability to deliver robust, end-to-end M2M communication solutions to our customers.”
Founded in 2004, Antcor is a privately-held VC backed company with headquarters in Athens, Greece. With 25 highly qualified employees, Antcor specializes in Wi-Fi software development.
For more information about Antcor, visit www.antcor.com
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