| |
 |
|
MAIN PANEL
- Think Pervasive
How Wireless Sensor Networking Will Succeed.
- About Harbor
Who we are and what we offer.
- SmartSphere(r) "Living Business Intelligence"(tm)
Harbor's innovative online service is a totally new kind of research experience. It supports almost any type of project. Our earlier Pervasive Internet Report, for example, has been replaced and enhanced by our SmartSphere(r) "Pervasive Internet Suppliers" project.
SIDE PANEL
All issues of Harbor "Currents" are archived
on the Web.
|
 |
|
M2M Expo and Conference
March 23-24, 2005, Dallas, TX
Harbor
Research proudly co-sponsors the second annual US M2M Expo and Conference in Dallas, TX, March 23-24, 2005.
 .Last year's inaugural Expos in Dallas and Brussels, Belgium crackled with pioneering energy. They were great events. But this one is going to be extraordinary.
Harbor is leading the development of the agenda and content for the Expo. We're constructing an innovative format based around real-world case studies in which both suppliers and adopters can present their progress together as a team.
If you can attend one M2M-related event this year, this is it. We hope to see you there.
|
 |
| Technology
suppliers: We want you in our Knowledge Base
If your company has anything to do with Internet-enabled devices or
M2M (from sensors to services), we want your full profile in the Knowledge
Base that drives our online SmartSphere(r) projects on M2M and the Pervasive Internet (PDF, 224 KB). In addition to
our regular subscribers,
nearly
700 business and high-tech
journalists
have
full
access to
this ever-growing relational database of companies, products and events.
There is no cost to your company, but we do need
your help. Please download
our company profiling form--a Microsoft
Word document with fields
that you can easily fill out on screen. Complete the form
and email it to us to start the process. We'll follow
up for additional information, if needed. When complete, we'll
send you an attractive PDF file of your profile that you can use
for
your own
purposes.
Of course, your PDF-based profile will be a static
document. But users of our online SmartSphere(r) projects will see your company and
its
information dynamically--as part of graphical sector and venue
maps, and in auto-generated links to other records in the database,
such as other companies and ongoing events related to you and your
products or services. |
 |
|
Suppliers and Adopters: We want your Press Releases
If your company emails press releases about Pervasive-related events, put
us on your list at pr@harborresearch.com.
We'll include your announcements in the events-tracking of our SmartSphere(r) projects, linked to a databased profile of your
organization. (You can help us create a good profile by filling out our company
profiling form.)
|
 |
| We welcome distribution of our PDF-format white papers, diagrams, and "Currents" essays under the following conditions:
- Whether in digital or printed form, all PDFs must be used exactly as supplied, without modification, and with the Harbor logo and contact information intact.
- If a Harbor PDF file is made available on your Web site, your link to the file must include attribution to Harbor Research, Inc., and this attribution must be linked to harborresearch.com. In addition, please notify us that you are posting the file.
- If you quote from any piece of Harbor writing, or refer to the information in any Harbor diagram, you must credit Harbor Research, Inc. with a link to harborresearch.com.
|
 |
|
Our free white papers reflect both our
research activities and our consulting.
"Smart Power: Pervasive Internet Technology in a Changing Energy Market " (February,
2005)
Deregulation and demand for smart, clean, and efficient energy have driven innovation in the Power venue, particularly in distributed resources (DR) technology. PDF
format, 860 KB.
"Home Awareness: Delivering Value with Digital Convergence in the Home" (September,
2004)
HomeHeartbeat(tm), a new smart-home platform from Eaton, takes a refreshingly "pervasive" perspective on home technology, and underscores the importance of first-mover advantages in a networked world. PDF
format, 524 KB.
"Think
Smart, Think Connected: Maintaining
Competitive Advantage in an Open, Connected Landscape" (August,
2003)
EU Corporate Leaders Meet in Paris to Discuss
New Business Opportunities of a Connected World. PDF
format, 220 KB.
"Let the Circle Be Unbroken: How Device Networking
/ M2M and the Internet Will Automate the Global Enterprise" (July,
2003)
Direct and easy to understand, this paper is an excellent introduction
to the Pervasive Internet and the many ways in which wired and wireless
device communication will completely automate global business. PDF
format, 392 KB.
"Core Network Providers:
Can They Escape the Commoditization Spiral?" (June 2003)
Today, core connectivity providers are in a declining-profit commodity
business and suffocating under mountains of dot-com build-out debt.
Meanwhile, a vast source of future growth
and revenue--device
networking / M2M--lies just outside their human-centric
blinders, along with the chance to adopt a truly 21st century business
model: that of the enterprise-automation "infotributor." PDF
format, 740 KB.
"The ‘Always On' Pervasive
Internet: Why Broadband Means More Than Bits" (January,
2002)
The buzz about broadband always emphasizes bandwidth and human-centric
applications such as video-on-demand or voice-over-IP. But for the
device-centric Pervasive Internet, broadband's virtue is not its
bandwidth but the fact that it's "always
on." PDF
format, 180 KB.
"Catalytic Strategy:
Hasten Change, Shape Your Industry" (January, 2002)
In chemistry, a catalyst is an agent that speeds up the reaction
that produces a desired compound.
In high-tech business, the relentless rapid change can be unnerving, but trying to resist it will only get you hurt. In fact, it's often a good idea to speed it up--and then use the resulting disruption and momentum to your advantage. To do so, find a way to become a catalyst yourself, or find a business ally to be a catalyst for you. PDF format, 180 KB.
|
 |
|
Our popular Pervasive Internet diagrams are
vector-based PDF files that look great at any screen size or printer
resolution.
Pervasive Internet Venue
Map
Now you can see the entire Pervasive Internet laid out on a
single page--segmented
by market, service opportunities, and example devices.
Click
here to download our Pervasive Internet Venue Map.
Device Networking Hierarchy
Some Internet-connected devices are mobile, others are stationary. Some,
like PDAs and mobile phones, deliver full value only when given complete
human attention. "Pure" Pervasive Internet devices get no direct
human attention at all.
In this diagram, we place devices along the
"human-centric" / "device-centric" continuum,
give examples of each type, and suggest deployment figures for 2005.
Click
here to download our Device Networking Hierarchy diagram.
M2M Market Landscape
Distribution of Pervasive Internet / M2M players in terms of product / services mix and scope of solution, circa March 2004. This diagram is not intended to portray every active player, nor is it etched in stone. Company position is constantly evolving.
Click
here to download the M2M Market Landscape PDF (125 KB) .
SIGNALSmart(tm)
Technology Framework
The Pervasive Internet begins with data generated by intelligent
devices. It ends with the smart Web services that
automate and optimize manufacturing, marketing, business logistics,
supply chain, and customer service. In between, many complex,
interoperable technologies must come into play.
We created our SIGNALSmart(tm) Framework
to provide a clear portrait of this technology path, along with
terminology and examples for suppliers
and adopters alike.
Click
here to download our 2-page SIGNALSmart(tm) Framework diagram (PDF,
368 KB).
M2M Ecosystems
Potential M2M adopters are looking for a bridge across the chasm between technology innovation and real-world business value. Only full supplier ecosystems can build that bridge. This diagram uses Harbor's SIGNALSmart(tm) framework to show what's needed, and what adopters do--and do not--care about.
Click
here to download the M2M Ecosystems PDF (70 KB) .
The "Device ISP" Opportunity
Major connectivity providers have made some device-centric strides, but we're still living in "The Telephone Age." A huge M2M / Pervasive Internet opportunity exists for those who "own the wire" or control a piece of wireless spectrum.
Click
here to download the Device ISP PDF (400 KB).
|
 |
Subscribe
Did a friend or colleague forward this "Currents" to you? If so,
you can easily get your own subscription by clicking
here.
Note: The following 2 options are for emailed copies of "Currents" only. They will not work if you are viewing this issue on the Web.
Unsubscribe
We want you to stay, but if you really want to unsubscribe,
don't reply to this mailing. Do this instead:
- Go to your Profile
Management Page.
- Click the "Unsubscribe Completely" button at the top.
- You'll receive no further mailings.
Change your profile
Every
"Currents" subscriber has a profile
that will, in the near future, allow us to deliver personalized
content determined by your interests (Smart Buildings, Smart Retail,
Sensors, Enterprise Applications, and so on). You can
change your profile at your Profile
Management Page.
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
Our title means many
things
Invisible forces running through water. Electricity running through wires.
The many wireless signals in the air all around us. And all the things ("current
events") that are happening right now.
"Currents" was also the title of a publication series we
did some years ago. There was no Web when we started it. Very few of
our subscribers even had email. Today we have better ways to share our
thoughts and news. But in casting about for a newsletter title, nothing
sounded better than our own legacy, so "Currents" is back.
And there's one other reason: Mark Twain.
The passenger who could not read it was charmed with a peculiar
sort of faint dimple on [the river's] surface, but to the pilot
that was an italicized passage ... for it meant that a wreck or rock
was buried there that could tear the life out of the strongest vessel
that ever floated. In truth, the passengers who could not read this
book saw nothing but pretty pictures in it, whereas to the trained
eye these were not pictures at all, but the most earnest of reading
matter.
--Life on the Mississippi
Anyone can see the ripples on the surface of the water. The expert
eye reads the currents beneath.
|
|
|
 |
|
Both suppliers and adopters need to avoid excessive fixation on new technologies alone. Clear business cases and value propositions are the keys to adoption progress, not mere technical validation.
The real challenge: Create a compelling business story and tell it well.
Download this Currents in printer-friendly PDF format (210 KB).
(See our terms of use.)
Visit the free demo of Harbor's SmartSphere(r) online research platform, which contains interactive profiles of some of the companies cited in this issue of Currents. (Requires the latest version of Flash.)
Learn about Harbor's brand-new study of Pervasive Internet adoption, Connecting to Your Future: The Networking of Every Manufactured Thing. Download an overview of Connecting to Your Future (PDF, 328 KB).
Notes from the Recent ZigBee(tm) Open House
There was an electric charge of opportunity in the air at last week's ZigBee(tm) Alliance Open House in San Francisco. Now that the ZigBee(tm) specification is complete and ratified, the vendor landscape is filling up fast. This means many new opportunities for suppliers and adopters alike--but new challenges, too.
| Wireless Sensor Networking Value Proposition |
 |
|
Click the image to download this issue of Currents in printer-friendly PDF format (210 KB).
Source: Harbor Research, Inc.
|
Here are a few interesting highlights from the ZigBee(tm) Open House and other recent activities:
- The ZigBee(tm) specification has been ratified by the membership, opening the floodgates for many anticipated product announcements;
- New companies continue to join the fray--the ZigBee(tm) Alliance continues to show strong momentum;
- Many recent company announcements and maneuvers, including the announced acquisition of Figure 8 Wireless by Chipcon, the acquisition of Xsilogy by SYS Technologies, the alliance between Ember and Atmel, and a new round of funding for Dust Networks, to name a few.
In general, the outlook is quite positive. The core group of players that drove the specification was not so large or unwieldy that it got in its own way, or hung up the timing, or created needless complexity. This does not mean, however, that the Alliance members won't still find opportunities to create a noisy, confusing landscape that slows down adoption.
Wireless Sensor Players Are Not all the Same
As we pointed out last summer (Currents 27: "ZigBee(tm): The Wireless Device Networking Enabler Arrives"), it may look like all the Alliance's suppliers are simply "up to that wireless sensor networking stuff." On closer examination, you see that the space is in fact rife with diversity of experience, business models, and intentions.
Both in what they propose to do and in how they understand it, ZigBee(tm) suppliers possess a significant variety of explicit and implicit characteristics.
We believe that the adoption of ZigBee(tm)--and wireless sensor networks in general--will be uneven and unpredictable. There are simply too many variables in play to make confident predictions.
In fact, the climate and the market for ZigBee(tm) will likely lead to a "Typhoid Mary" sort of adoption. That is, opportunities will emerge in unexpected venues and applications, and the spread of adoption may appear, to the untrained eye, as more random than orderly and predictable.
The good news is that so many pilots and test beds are up and running that enough are bound to succeed to maintain fairly rapid overall growth of this sizeable market opportunity.
Technology By Itself Has No Automatic Business Value
So, what needs to happen to promote the adoption of wireless sensing? We believe two points need to be addressed:
- Supplier messaging and positioning concerning the value propositions for wireless sensing are still confusing to most adopters;
- Adopter OEMs need to "shift gears" out of technical validation and into focusing on the business cases and value propositions that will drive new growth opportunities.
In both cases, this is really about understanding the customer's behavior and developing a deeper understanding of how to deliver value. Suppliers of wireless sensing and remote device management need to look beyond the "technical plumbing" value of the technology, and the adopters need to do the same. All of the various stakeholders need to get past being overly enamored with the technology per se.
It all boils down to the need for both suppliers and adopters to create effective value propositions. Which customers are they really focusing on? What are the "pain points" that this technology addresses and potentially mitigates? What are the exact value elements that really matter?
Sensor Nets Can Take Services to a Much Higher Level
Today, it's conventional wisdom to say that product companies should embrace services as a new means to generate growth and a sustainable position. The logic has been examined many times: Services typically involve a recurring revenue stream, less fixed capital, and potentially much higher margins than those of a strictly product-centric business.
Designed and executed properly, services can offer an escape from the downward spiral of commoditization, and create a nearly unbreakable bond with the customer.
Wireless sensing and the business value inherent in it simply carries the services thesis to a much higher level of impact.
| Free Harbor SmartSphere(r) Demonstration |
 |
Click the image to visit a free demo of Harbor's SmartSphere(r) online research platform, which features interactive profiles of some of the companies cited in this issue of Currents. (Requires the latest version of Flash.)
Source: Harbor Research, Inc.
|
We can point to a number of players in the market now who demonstrate just how profound this transformation can be. All of the success stories have something in common: the merits of the new technology were understood and communicated in a manner that clearly demonstrated the value delivered.
In general, most companies have not faced head-on the need to formulate a compelling story and tell it well.
Device Networking Can Enhance All Aspects of an Adopter's Business
Wireless sensing and remote revice management will change industry in many dramatic ways. The phenomenon is not merely a standalone means for monitoring, tracking, and communicating data and events in real time. It is a tool that may be used to support all aspects of a business, including sales and services, product design, professional services, alliances and technical support, and, ultimately, customer care.
Clear business cases and value propositions are the keys to adoption progress, not the mere availability of a new enabling technology.
Download this Currents in printer-friendly PDF format (210 KB).
(See our terms of use.)
Visit the free demo of Harbor's SmartSphere(r) online research platform, which contains interactive profiles of some of the companies cited in this issue of Currents. (Requires the latest version of Flash.)
Learn about Harbor's brand-new study of Pervasive Internet adoption, Connecting to Your Future: The Networking of Every Manufactured Thing. Download an overview of Connecting to Your Future (PDF, 328 KB).
Harbor Research welcomes your feedback. Send it to feedback@harborresearch.com.
Visit the "Currents" archive on the Web at:
http://harborresearch.com/currents/.
Subscribe to "Currents" at:
http://harborresearch.com/subscribe/
|
| |
 |
|
Who We Are and What We Offer
New! Harbor Pervasive Internet Briefing Service
First, a few words about our latest offering, which is a unique and efficient way to harness the resources of Harbor Research: The Pervasive Internet Briefing Service. This annual package delivers outstanding business intelligence value by combining all points of contact to Harbor:
- Quarterly in-person briefings on subjects of your choosing
- All Harbor publications for a year
- Department- or business unit-wide access to Harbor SmartSphere(r) online tracking projects
- Phone and email access to analysts
Download a brochure on the Pervasive Internet Briefing Service (PDF, 500 KB).
Founded in 1983, Harbor Research Inc. has more than twenty years of experience in providing strategic consulting and research services that enable our clients to understand and capitalize on emergent and disruptive opportunities in high technology, Harbor Research's clients are leaders in communications, computing, control, and content. Harbor Research has built extended relationships with larger multi-line companies including AT&T, ABB, General Electric, Danaher, Eaton, Emerson, Hewlett Packard, Honeywell, Hughes, IBM, Intel, Invensys, Lucent, Motorola, Rockwell, Siemens, and Texas Instruments, as well as with growth companies such as EMC, Cadence Design, Conexant, Qualcomm, and PTC.
We also work with a broad array of emergent start-ups and pre-IPO technology ventures. We have built relationships with a number of significant Pervasive Internet players, including Questra Corporation, Xsilogy, DataSweep, eDevice, Wireless Innovation, and emWare, to name a few.
We provide studies, workshops, briefings, research retainers, and consulting engagements of uniquely high value to both technology suppliers and adopters. For more information, please contact us.
|
 |
Your secret weapon has arrived. Announcing a totally new kind of business research experience.
Harbor's new online platform for research services offers continually updated intelligence and stunning data-visualization.
Static, printed reports can't track the complex ecosystems and warp-speed pace of high tech. SmartSphere(r) projects can.
The brains of the Web. The brawn of server databases. The beauty of a CD-ROM.
For nearly ten years, we've been waiting for Web media to get good enough to let us do this. It's finally here. Harbor SmartSphere(r) re-invents the whole concept of delivering research value. It's to business research what the Pervasive Internet will be to business itself: a huge injection of dynamic intelligence and sheer voltage. SmartSphere(r) is online, interactive, dynamic, and visualized. There's nothing static, rigid, or dead about it. Eventually, we at Harbor will do everything in SmartSphere(r) that we used to do on paper, and we'll do it better. And you can, too. in a custom-configured project of your own, SmartSphere(r) can be anything you want it to be.
And yes, you can get printed reports. We've re-invented those, too. Not fixed, one-size-fits-all printed reports, but custom printed reports that you configure and SmartSphere(r) creates for you on the fly in PDF format.
See SmartSphere(r) and find out more right now:
- Visit our free, live SmartSphere(r) demonstration. They say pictures are worth a thousand words. So what are they worth if they're pictures of your whole world, and you can fly around inside the pictures with your mouse?
- Download a brochure on the SmartSphere(r) research platform and services (PDF, 970 KB).
- Download a brochure about our SmartSphere(r) "living research" projects on the M2M/Pervasive Internet phenomenon (PDF, 240 KB).
 |
A small portion of an interactive Harbor SphereMap(tm). This one portrays a company's world. You "fly around" the map by dragging it with your mouse, bringing into focus any area you want to explore. You see a company's peers, investors, products, and alliance-structure at a glance.
Clicking nodes fetches additional information from the database. Shift-clicking nodes creates new maps of other companies--and maps of markets, too.
|
Projects, projects, projects. Ours, and yours.
SmartSphere(r) is an online platform that Harbor uses to deliver Web-based services. You don't buy SmartSphere(r) the way you buy
a program for your computer. You buy access to one or more SmartSphere(r) projects. We define projects of our own on important high-tech subjects, and clients can subscribe to those projects. Clients can also define their own custom (and completely private) projects.
SmartSphere(r) projects are laser-focused on their subjects. No waste, no fluff, no irrelevance. A SmartSphere(r) project delivers continually updated information on whatever the project has been defined to track. Some of that information is created in the good old-fashioned way, by experienced researchers and analysts. And some of it is created with 21st century tools like automated news feeds and Web-based info services. Every time you log in to a project, there's new information--freshly tracked events, new company alliances, new company and market comparisons, enhanced company, market, and technology profiles, and insightful Harbor commentary and analysis.
When you visit our SmartSphere(r) demonstration, you'll see a limited version of our own "Pervasive Internet Suppliers" project. Bear in mind that the free demo offers limited information and functionality. The full "Pervasive Internet Suppliers" project, for example, was created to replace and improve our own earlier online publication, Pervasive Internet Report.
Custom SmartSphere(r) projects. Your secret weapon has arrived.
You've heard about some of our SmartSphere(r) projects. Now let's talk about yours. Does your company have business development, M&A, R&D, or sales and marketing goals? We hope the answer is yes. How would you like "living business intelligence"(tm) on the companies that interest or worry you? Or on the markets and technologies that are defining your future? A custom SmartSphere(r) project is the perfect way to do that. "Living business intelligence"(tm) means research that is laser-focused on your targets, and continually updated for as long as you need it.
Any collection of companies, markets, or technologies can become the backbone of a SmartSphere(r) project. You define who or what they are. You define what you want to track about them, and how you'd like to rank or score or weight them. You define the types of cross-company or cross-market comparisons you'd like to see.
You need Flash to use Harbor's site and our SmartSphereŽ demos. It's free and easy. Get it here.Take action and take control.
If you've read this much about SmartSphere(r) without clicking something, it's time to click. Here are those links once again.
- Visit our free, live SmartSphere(r) demonstration.
- Download a brochure on the SmartSphere(r) research platform and services (PDF, 970 KB).
- Download a brochure about our SmartSphere(r) "living research" projects on the M2M/Pervasive Internet phenomenon (PDF, 240 KB).
|
|
|
