ABI Research Blog

Recently DiGi Telecommunications, has been lobbying the Malaysian telecoms regulator, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), in regard to the potential acquisition of 900 MHz spectrum. This is because there is an expectation that the national regulator may announce the refarming of the 2G 900 MHz spectrum band in early 2015. Even if the MCMC decides to refarm the spectrum, it has to determine the method of sale first, whether via spectrum auction, beauty contest, government allocation, or a combination of these.

Last month, the Guardian has just reported that one in six mobile phone users is shocked by high bills when they use their mobile abroad (http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/jun/30/bill-mobile-phone-abroad-eu-roaming). In this age of rapid 4G deployment and proliferation of smartphones with 3G capability, the percentage is unusually high and worth some investigation.

The booming Internet of Things space just got another significant vote of confidence last week, as the news broke that telecoms-equipment heavyweight Huawei has acquired the narrowband-connectivity pioneer Neul for a reported US$25 million. This is a great deal for all parties. In Neul, Huawei buys an innovative supplier that is well-positioned to enable billions of connected Things and thus become a major player in this future multi-trillion-dollar industry. In Huawei, Neul gains a synergetic partner with global resources to take its value proposition to the next level. Meanwhile, the reported price represents a lucrative exit for Neul’s investors, which had collectively spent $18.8 million on funding the company. For the wider IoT space, this serves as yet another validation that…

A California appellate court recently reversed a lower court ruling between Schwan Home Services and its service managers.  The new ruling on the case (http://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/B247160.PDF) after cutting through the legal analysis basically requires Schwan to reimburse service managers for mobile communications costs incurred for work reasons when the employee is paying for their mobile phone services.  It has drawn praise from employee rights advocates but also ire from those who see businesses weighted down by more regulations.

Maybe its just to get people like me to putting 2 and 2 together, but Broadcom has very coincidentally chosen to announce its new BCM 4773 GNSS IC at the same time as Apple announced its new iPhone and Watch devices. broadcom has a tradition of this and rarely announces a new GNSS IC before it has won a major socket. Even it I am wrong, it gives me a good opportunity to look at the new IC and how it might fit into the Apple system. 

Earlier in the week, I was in Marseille to attend the M2M Innovation World Congress event, which is part of the broader World Smart Week shindig - and despite its retro-pompous name tends to be a great occasion for catching up on certain technology trends and meeting new people with interesting things to say. As a summary, here are some loose thoughts based on what I saw and heard:

On 12 September, Fortinet, McAfee, Palo Alto Networks and Symantec announced a new industry partnership: the Cyber Threat Alliance. The collaborative effort is an interesting one, as it seeks to provide a platform for the sharing of information that is the traditional chaff from where their bread and butter idiomatically derives. The stated goals of the Alliance, as outlined by an accompanying white paper, is to share intelligence on vulnerabilities, exploits, new malware samples, and botnet command and control infrastructure. Undeniably the escalation of complex and sophisticated cyberattacks successfully leveraging the deployment of zero-days and botnets, has rendered legacy signature-based antivirus engines almost obsolete in terms of defending against modern threats (although that is not to say antivirus is completely dead, as n00bcomers still need to cut their teeth on something on their way up the ladder).

As expected, the new Apple Watch does not have built in GPS or location capabilities, relying on the iPhone. No doubt there will be a lot about the demise of the fitness wearable market, but that seems a little reactionary-who didn’t see an Apple watch coming? These companies will have been gearing up for this and while there may be attrition there will be success stories also. So does this mean the GPS fitness watches are off the hook? No. Apple’s wearable is going to fit in very well with the emerging nearable (iBeacon) ecosystem that is going to change the connected home, health, retail and payment sectors. These are the killer apps that the tech writers are looking for following the announcement. Here, a converged device is the winner of the masses, but of course this will take time.

At ABI Research, we have been saying for a long time that Apple will eventually include NFC in its smartphones, even when it was working on the use of Bluetooth Smart.  Apple even included NFC in its smartwatch.  With Bluetooth Smart's ability to detect distance, you could have it activate only in close proximity like NFC.  To the end user, the functionality was the same, but NFC adds a layer of security required banks and mobile operators.

Two could be the key number tonight. Two iPhones, two iPads, two iWatches, the partnerships could come in two by two and U2 are expected to perform. Although the heavy emphasis in the invite on the dates 09/09/2014 suggests nine could be prominent two.