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MAIN PANEL
- Think Pervasive
Carriers and Barriers: Embracing Orphaned Devices.
- About Harbor
Who we are and what we offer.
- SmartSphere® “Living
Business Intelligence”™
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® “Pervasive
Internet Suppliers” project.
SIDE PANEL
All issues of Harbor “Currents” are archived
on the Web.
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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.
Telematics Update presents:
M2M for Total Asset Management
May
24 - 25, 2005 - Miami, FL
Harbor Research is a media partner
in this conference, exhibition, and
networking event focused on how to
build profitable end-to-end telemetry
solutions for mobile and fixed asset
management.
The first event to bring together Telematics
and M2M solution providers, system integrators,
and network operators to profit from each others’ experience
and leverage Telematics opportunities across vertical
markets.
Telematics
Update also offers a free
report on M2M for Asset Management, part of which is jointly published by e-principles and Harbor Research.
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| 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® 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® 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. |
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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® projects, linked to a databased profile of your
organization. (You can help us create a good profile by filling out our company
profiling form.)
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| 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.
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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™, 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.
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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™
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™ 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™ 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™ 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).
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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.
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Carriers and Barriers: Embracing Orphaned Devices
Lack of business vision and technical barriers
have kept carriers from taking a central role in the M2M
value chain.
But new gateway initiatives from Glu Networks
and Digi will help carriers offer device-oriented
connectivity and services by overcoming the
unique requirements of diverse verticals.
Download this Currents in printer-friendly PDF format (116 KB).
(See our terms of use.)
Visit
the free demo of Harbor’s SmartSphere® online
research platform, which contains interactive
profiles of some companies related to 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).
A Huge Carrier Opportunity Has Gone Begging
Will core network providers (carriers)
become a force in extending the overall
scale and scope of remote device monitoring and
management? The carriers are in a privileged position
to offer value-added services to device-data traffic
because, all other things being equal, it’s always
attractive to deal with a centralized, trusted source.
And
yet they have largely failed
to engage the opportunity. In some ways,
this is no surprise. The network providers have yet to
look very far past their legacy voice-centric view to
a future that will see their networks facilitate the
exchange of data by billions of devices. To a very real
extent, we are still living in “the Telephone Age.”
This
is partly because the M2M phenomenon
has not risen fast enough for carriers
to commit to it without reservation—although
parts of Europe are ahead of the game, as evidenced by
the activities of Orange, one of Europe’s main
wireless carriers. Indeed, while the potential of the
M2M market is massive, the actual adoption and volume
of M2M initiatives have lagged behind forecasts—leaving
a great chasm between market potential
and market reality.
Perhaps the best strategy for connectivity
providers is to create
a business-web of alliances that includes
key OEMs, access providers (if they
are not already captive), and makers of
gateways and local networking. Such webs would be further
enhanced by including software and services, so that
OEMs could more easily create and integrate
networked applications.
An Over-Abundance
of Vertical Standards Has Kept Carriers
Out of M2M
Without question, lack
of business vision
has been a problem. But the
carriers have faced formidable
external obstacles as well. M2M applications
remain largely vertically focused and device-specific.
Many of the technologies and services that
exist today have been built
with specific market sectors,
industry verticals, and niche applications
in mind.
To support these diverse requirements,
an over-abundance of enterprise
interfaces have emerged. While they meet
the needs of one target
market, they also represent
barriers of entry into
others.
Vertical uniqueness
has made
“widows and orphans” of many intelligent
devices—for example, devices that
are either in very remote locations or
devices needing back-up but where the
cost to back-up has
been prohibitive.
The lack of a
commercially
available “horizontal” functional
layer in the M2M
puzzle, coupled with the cost
and complexity of enabling disparate and
otherwise non-critical devices,
has kept carriers uninterested
in acting upon the opportunity.
New Technical
Solutions
Open the
M2M Door for Carriers
Now, proponents
of a centralized
carrier
role in the M2M buildout
will be
encouraged by new supplier initiatives
that will
help remove
these
longstanding obstacles and enable
carriers to claim
a central role in the M2M
value
chain.
Both a
new kid on
the block—Glu
Networks—and
a seasoned
M2M incumbent—Digi—have
recently
introduced
platforms
to give carriers
the ability
to reduce complex
and costly
end-to-end integration across
various protocols,
interfaces,
data encapsulation
methods,
communications
bearers, and
enterprise interfaces.
The end-result
will be tighter
collaboration
and complimentary services
between
the carriers
and application providers
that propels
them one step closer
to delivering
complete solutions.
| Free Harbor SmartSphere® Demonstration |
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Click the
image to visit a free demo of Harbor’s
SmartSphere® online
research platform, which features interactive
profiles of some companies related to
this issue of Currents. (Requires
the latest version of Flash.)
Source: Harbor Research, Inc.
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Glu Networks’
AIP Innovations
Built
upon an open
and standard
platform that
addresses a
broad spectrum
of networking
and application
technologies,
Glu
Network’s
innovation
in the area
of Application
Infrastructure
Platforms (AIPs) will allow
carriers to
resolve key
operational
challenges.
Until
now, carrier
attempts to
develop core
M2M business
services have
been foiled
by the lack
of availability
of commercial
gateway-like
technologies.
Glu’s
approach is
not solely
focused on
the carrier,
but also extends
the same solution
to application
providers and
other value-adders.
This
overarching model enables carriers
to grow their
data connectivity
services business
through application
provider channels.
Simultaneously
these service
providers gain
the means to
create scalable,
broad-based,
and profitable
M2M services
and applications
across
multiple industry
verticals.
Carriers
will then
have the ability
to add a “commercialized”
gateway to
their bundled
offering. In
the transition
to offering
high-value
M2M services,
accommodating
multiple
niche
enterprise
applications
in varied vertical
markets is
vital to generating
new revenue
from existing
network
assets. Winning
strategies
in emerging
Internet technologies
have consistently
incorporated
open standards.
The proliferation
of standards-based
M2M implementations
will accelerate
the maturation
of highly scalable
business models.
Digi’s
WAN GSM Gateway
The recent
announcement
by Digi
to provide
wireless connectivity
to remote devices
over a cellular
GSM network
extends the
argument that
the time for
carriers to
step up has
come. The Digi
Connect™ WAN
GSM gateway is a
component of Cingular’s
new high-speed
wireless connectivity
service. The
key to this
rollout is
the ease and
low-cost of
enabling devices
that would
not or could
not have been
connected before.
Devices
that were
formerly “widows
and orphans”
now become
easy to deploy
and administer
over a wireless
wide area network.
While
the primary purpose of
the Digi/Cingular
alliance is
to provide
a cost effective
and versatile
backup network
for mission-critical
assets
covered by
landline data
connections,
the product
is also being
utilized as
the primary
mode for communications
from remote
locations.
Digi’s new
software capabilities
will allow
Cingular to
open up a whole
new growth
opportunity
in the larger
sphere of wireless
machine-to-machine
(M2M)
communications.
Download this Currents in printer-friendly PDF format (116 KB).
(See our terms of use.)
Visit
the free demo of Harbor’s SmartSphere® online
research platform,
which contains interactive profiles of some
companies related to 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/
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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® 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.
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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® 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® 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® is online, interactive, dynamic, and visualized. There’s nothing static, rigid, or dead about it. Eventually, we at Harbor will do everything in SmartSphere® 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® 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® creates for you on the fly in PDF format.
See SmartSphere® and find out more right now:
- Visit our free, live SmartSphere® 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® research platform and services (PDF, 970 KB).
- Download a brochure about our SmartSphere® "living research" projects on the M2M/Pervasive Internet phenomenon (PDF, 240 KB).
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A
small portion of an interactive Harbor
SphereMap™. 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.
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Projects, projects, projects. Ours, and yours.
SmartSphere® is an online platform that Harbor uses to deliver Web-based services. You don’t buy SmartSphere® the way you buy
a program for your computer. You buy access to one or more SmartSphere® 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® projects are laser-focused on their subjects. No waste, no fluff, no irrelevance. A SmartSphere® 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® 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® projects. Your secret weapon has arrived.
You’ve heard about some of our SmartSphere® 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”™ on
the companies that interest or worry you? Or on the markets and
technologies that are defining your future? A custom SmartSphere® project
is the perfect way to do that. “Living business intelligence”™ 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® 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® without clicking something, it’s time to click. Here are those links once again.
- Visit our free, live SmartSphere® demonstration.
- Download a brochure on the SmartSphere® research platform and services (PDF, 970 KB).
- Download a brochure about our SmartSphere® “living
research” projects on the M2M/Pervasive
Internet phenomenon (PDF, 240 KB).
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