ABI Research Blog

The RSA Conference 2015 was a busy one for me this year and I met up with about 30 different companies during the week. The big topics this year that I wanted to highlight flowed around automation, threat intelligence and the Internet of Things.

ESPN or more accurately stated ESPN2 caused a mild uproar on Twitter Sunday night (April 28^th) after viewers were surprised to see “Heroes of the Dorm” airing on the sports channel. Many on the opposing side called foul on the show, decrying the “athletes” lack of physical prowess – well aside from the strong dexterity of the fingers and commendable eye and hand coordination. Others, even some of those unfamiliar with a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena – in this case “Heroes of the Storm”) were oddly intrigued by the unfamiliar spectacle and some even found it hard to turn it off. Putting these differences aside, does eSports have a future among the mega sports leagues like the NFL, NBA, and MLB?

Twitter’s investment in Swirl is that has really grabbed the headlines, so I have given a quick analysis of the company and the area in general. There have been bigger investments (SK Telecom Acquiring Shopkick), while Companies like Facebook and Groupon are already testing their own iBeacons, but this is an early and important verifier of the potential in iBeacons for advertising/marketing networks, for those outside the industry.

There is something telling – symbolic, even – about ARM’s former CEO, Warren East, taking the helm at Rolls-Royce. Going from one industry to another of course isn’t exactly anything unusual in the corporate leadership circles, but still, it’s difficult not to generalise on it, just a little bit. When such an iconic manufacturing group selects an alumnus of a computing powerhouse as its new chief executive, it surely has the Internet of Things, Industrial Internet, or, say, Industry 4.0, written somewhere on it?

With HERE officially issuing a “come and get me” this week, there is a lot of speculation as to who will acquire the company. The whole thing raises a series of questions, which I am going to attempt to answer below.

The FCC passed net neutrality regulation using Title II, a strict—and more consumer-friendly—legislative option. Whether nudged in that direction after President Obama “suggested” Title II was the way to go, or the FCC arrived at the final legislature unbiased, is neither here nor there. The regulations are in the final stages of approval, and will be officially active 60 days after being published in the Federal Register. That didn’t stop the lawsuits from coming, however; while it’s likely too early to take seriously any lawsuits (the FCC has all but guaranteed they will be thrown out to be appealed at a later date), there is also plenty of time for Congress to get involved and enact their own changes.

Biometric security measures are not something new from a technological perspective and until recently they were employed mostly in the governmental sector. Recent technological advancements in both biometrics and smartphone technologies are allowing a convergence between the two that is naturally evolving, allowing multiple verticals to benefit from it. Biometry in CE has moved way beyond the “hype” incubation part and is at this moment on the verge of becoming a mainstream practice. In the smartphone market, companies like Samsung and Apple are transforming the field with new biometric innovations in their flagship devices. Start-ups are getting their foot in the door with niche offerings, while first and middle tier companies are reformulating their strategies and plan to incorporate biometric modalities in their products and services in an effort to compete with the larger vendors and satisfy customer demand. Biometric technologies are expected to feed off of the existing smartphone and related technological infrastructure and provide revitalizing revenue opportunities for companies already utilizing NFC, BLE, and software products/apps that act as a platform for mobile payments.

Security was a more imposing topic this year at MWC. It has always been part of the show, but I believe this year, security really came into its own, with increasing interest in root of trust and embedded security. From mobile to carrier networks, from hardware to managed services, there were a lot of interesting solutions from vendors in the mobile space as well as from more traditional security players.

Well, that didn’t take long. About two weeks after I had remarked that Amazon doesn’t seem to have a lot going on for its IoT strategy, the laggard in question confirms to TechCrunch that it has acquired 2lemetry, for an undisclosed sum. So I stand corrected. That’s a savvy acquisition. For what it’s worth, when I in the same blog’s neighbouring sentence suggested that Salesforce.com could prove this year’s real wildcard what I actually had in mind was that it might well take its already close relationship with 2lemetry soon to the next level and buy it out. Oh drama.

Apple have sent out invites for an event on Monday with the words “Spring Forward”, no doubt timed because the clocks are about to change (to summer time) this weekend and perhaps on Monday too in Cupertino.