The race to capitalize on the 21st Century craze for convenience has heated up in the last couple of months. On November 30, Discover Financial Services rolled out its Discover Zip contactless payment system. Discover followed MasterCard Inc, Visa Inc., and American Express Company that had earlier announced their PayPass, payWave, and ExpressPay Contactless cards, respectively. On November 15th, service providers AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless entered the fray. They formed a joint venture to build a national mobile commerce network—old world business models confronting fast moving new world order.
The latest twist in this saga is the move to contactless transactions playing out at gas pumps, coffee shops, fast food chains, and countless other locations, where transaction speed means increased revenue for retailers and less stress to a population that hates to wait. However, it should be noted that the speedy payment can be traced back to 1997 when then Mobil Oil (now Exxon-Mobil) introduced SpeedPass, an RFID dongle on a customer keychain. Verifone designed the RFID dongle and point-of-sale terminal inside the gas pump and at the cashier desk. Passing the dongle close to the pump in a certain place or at the point-of-sale terminal in the station authorized the gas purchase.
In this latest incarnation, major credit card providers, MasterCard PayPass seems to have the largest global footprint. MasterCard introduced PayPass in 2004 and as of Q2 2009; there were nearly 61 million MasterCard PayPass cards and devices in use at over 153,000 merchants worldwide. The financial service provider has tremendous potential to expand this footprint. According to the MasterCard website, the company processes over 22 billion transactions each year and has the capacity to handle 140 million transactions per hour, with an average network response time of 140 milliseconds and with 99.99 percent reliability .
Visa, the largest of the major credit card suppliers, with 1.61 billion cards in circulation versus 914 million for MasterCard started slower in the contactless payment rally. Its payWave offering got started in 2007. Statistics on the number of payWave cards in circulation are hard to come by on the web, but according to the ecommerce-journal website, the number in the UK is expected to reach 12 million this year. Certainly, both companies have a huge number of cardholders to upgrade to contactless technology. American Express comes in third with 53 million cardholders in the U.S. though all of them are equipped with ExpressPay, AMEX’s contactless solution. The problem for American Express is the limited number of merchants with terminal that accept ExpressPay compared to its two larger rivals.
Latecomer Discover with its Zip contactless payment system is confronting a formidable array of competitors. Nevertheless, Discover is hitting the ground running, stating in its November 30th press release that Zip is accepted at 100,000 locations in the U.S. And it has plenty of room to grow as Discover Financial Services’ payment network is currently accepted at more than seven million merchant locations nationwide. That’s why the new mobile-payment venture Isis being rolled out by the joint venture of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile wanted to make use of Discover’s extensive mobile payment infrastructure.
The motives for credit card suppliers entering contactless payments is to increase the number and speed of transactions while lowering the cost of processing the exchange, each a machine-to-machine interaction generating a fee. Contactless payments enable these giants to process other types of transactions that generate revenue: prepaid cards, debit card transactions, funds transfers between individuals, etc.
Likewise, mobile phone service providers want new sources of revenue by having their handsets replace cards as well as the customer’s wallet. The three carriers together have over 220 million subscribers, thus a formidable base to empower with contactless payment capability, first by providing users stick-on RFID tags and built into next generation handset electronics.
The contactless bandwagon continued to gain speed this week. On Tuesday, Wells Fargo Bank announced a San Francisco-based pilot of Visa payWave. Conducted among 200 Wells Fargo employees who use BlackBerry and iPhone devices, BlackBerry users will insert an In2Pay microSD chip, from DeviceFidelity Inc. of Dallas Texas, containing Visa payWave software in their phone; iPhone users will receive an In2Pay case for their iPhone that contains the microSD card. The system will work at fast food restaurants, taxis, sporting event concession stands, and vending machines equipped with Visa payWave readers. DeviceFidelity is relying on the iSuppli report showing 66 percent of devices shipped in 2008 had SD slots growing to 82 percent in 2010. The one obstacle may be carriers building contactless capability into the handset.
One company angling to help carriers add the near-field communications (NFC) capability needed for contactless operation is the System LSI Division of Samsung Electronics. At the CARTES & IDentification 2010 Conference being held in Paris this week, the Seoul-based electronics giant announced a new near NFC chip phone makers can use to add contactless capability to their handset. The NFC chip can also read RFID tags in retail stores or on outdoor billboards for convenient on-the-spot data access.
The question that this competition brings out is how will the consumer ultimately prefer to make mobile payments: with a credit card, with a mobile phone, or some other device: RFID tag on wristwatch, keychain fob, bracelet, or some combination of all.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
Which chip vendor to win as China’s 813 million 2.5G phones move to 3G?
China is a huge market for wireless data and telephony. At the end of this past October, the three major telecom operators—China Mobile, China, Unicom, and China Telecom—had a combined total of nearly 813 million mostly 2.5 G mobile phone subscribers, according to Marbridge Consulting. However, the Beijing-based market research firm noted that China Mobile had 16.58 million TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access—China’s version of CDMA technology) subscribers; China Unicom had 11.66 million WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) subscribers; and China Telecom had 2.53 million CDMA subscribers. And these 3G numbers are growing, pointing to a huge market for chip suppliers providing baseband and application processor chip solutions to handset vendors targeting the China market.
In this emerging competitive landscape, Qualcomm Inc. is the company to catch. In July this year, market research firm iSuppli ranked it first among the top nine digital baseband chip suppliers worldwide. Qualcomm’s newest Snapdragon chipset shows up in the Google Nexus One smartphone; Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid and Skylight smart book device, Sony-Ericsson's Xperia X10, the HTC HD2 and LG eXpo, among others. Qualcomm faces tough competition in WCDMA, from Infineon, Texas Instruments, Broadcom and Mediatek—it’s biggest threat in China. iSuppli of El Segundo, California says Hsinchu City, Taiwan-based Mediatek holds 71 percent of China’s 2G-handset chip market and it plans to maintain its share in the 3G realm. In July this year, Mediatek acquired a license from Tokyo-based DoCoMo for DoCoMo's LTE-PF, a mobile-terminal platform based on Long Term Evolution. Mediatek aims to integrate the LTE technology into its 2G and 3G solutions.
In the iSuppli ranking of the top nine digital baseband chip suppliers, behind leader Qualcomm and second place Mediatek were in order Texas Instruments, ST Ericsson, Infineon, Broadcom, Renesas, Marvell, and Spreadtrum. Absent from the list, but determined not to be left out of this market opportunity, is Intel Corp. On August 30th this year, the Santa Clara, California-based microprocessor chip giant, purchased Infineon Technologies’ wireless chip business for $1.4 Billion. With the acquisition, Intel gets access to Infineon’s software-defined-radio technology, which supports multiple standards on the same processor with only a software change.
For the China market, these chip vendors have to be targeting the TD SCDMA standard, which the Chinese government is pushing as the major next-generation 3G standard. And to serve this market, chip vendors must have offerings that cost no more than $10. According to a report in Digitimes last October, China Mobile is expecting TD-SCDMA handsets and smartphones to retail for about $75 (500 yuan) and $150 (1,000) yuan, respectively, this quarter. The Digitimes article stated that China Mobile is setting up its fourth-phase TD-SCDMA network of more than 100,000 base stations and expects the number of TD-SCDMA subscribers to increase from 13.42 million currently to 100 million in 2012.
The question that begs to be answered is can any of the U.S. and European chip vendors in iSuppli’s top nine ranking compete in this price sensitive market against Shanghai-based Spreadtrum Communications, Inc. or Taiwan-based Mediatek?
In this emerging competitive landscape, Qualcomm Inc. is the company to catch. In July this year, market research firm iSuppli ranked it first among the top nine digital baseband chip suppliers worldwide. Qualcomm’s newest Snapdragon chipset shows up in the Google Nexus One smartphone; Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid and Skylight smart book device, Sony-Ericsson's Xperia X10, the HTC HD2 and LG eXpo, among others. Qualcomm faces tough competition in WCDMA, from Infineon, Texas Instruments, Broadcom and Mediatek—it’s biggest threat in China. iSuppli of El Segundo, California says Hsinchu City, Taiwan-based Mediatek holds 71 percent of China’s 2G-handset chip market and it plans to maintain its share in the 3G realm. In July this year, Mediatek acquired a license from Tokyo-based DoCoMo for DoCoMo's LTE-PF, a mobile-terminal platform based on Long Term Evolution. Mediatek aims to integrate the LTE technology into its 2G and 3G solutions.
In the iSuppli ranking of the top nine digital baseband chip suppliers, behind leader Qualcomm and second place Mediatek were in order Texas Instruments, ST Ericsson, Infineon, Broadcom, Renesas, Marvell, and Spreadtrum. Absent from the list, but determined not to be left out of this market opportunity, is Intel Corp. On August 30th this year, the Santa Clara, California-based microprocessor chip giant, purchased Infineon Technologies’ wireless chip business for $1.4 Billion. With the acquisition, Intel gets access to Infineon’s software-defined-radio technology, which supports multiple standards on the same processor with only a software change.
For the China market, these chip vendors have to be targeting the TD SCDMA standard, which the Chinese government is pushing as the major next-generation 3G standard. And to serve this market, chip vendors must have offerings that cost no more than $10. According to a report in Digitimes last October, China Mobile is expecting TD-SCDMA handsets and smartphones to retail for about $75 (500 yuan) and $150 (1,000) yuan, respectively, this quarter. The Digitimes article stated that China Mobile is setting up its fourth-phase TD-SCDMA network of more than 100,000 base stations and expects the number of TD-SCDMA subscribers to increase from 13.42 million currently to 100 million in 2012.
The question that begs to be answered is can any of the U.S. and European chip vendors in iSuppli’s top nine ranking compete in this price sensitive market against Shanghai-based Spreadtrum Communications, Inc. or Taiwan-based Mediatek?
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Will MEMS Technology Turn Handheld Devices into Intelligent Digital Assistants?
Little heralded but absolutely essential to the experience users enjoy from their smartphones is MEMS (microelectronic and micro-electromechanical systems) technology. These are small mechanical devices driven by electricity that perform amazing functions like a 3-axis gyroscope and 3-axis accelerometer that enable the Wii Wand as well to control an interactive game or your mobile phone to locate itself in 3D space to provide augmented reality functions.
The MEMS Executive Congress 2010, where the latest technology is discussed and demonstrated, concluded last week showcasing future applications of MEMS. One example cited included shoes with embedded GPS receiver, small MEMS sensor and mobile phone transmitter to track the location of children and Alzheimer’s patients. Another example suggested that MEMS sensors, communications, and computing could be combined to create a smart home that interacted with its residence.
Keynote speaker Dr. Dan Siewiorek, professor of computer science and electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University’s Quality of Life Center, described a future with a MEMS-filled smart device that would monitor its owner’s heart rate during exercise, help the visually impaired to grocery-shop, and remember important social clues such as people’s names, phone numbers and directions. This intelligent digital assistant would help its owner navigate his environment and sustain him daily throughout his lifetime.
The market research and strategy consulting company, Yole Développement, founded in 1998, has been following the MEMS market for some time, paints the technology with a more practical brush. It says MEMS remains a fragmented market with a limited number of applications with a market size above $200M. Development of new MEMS applications takes $45M of investment and, on average, 4 years from start to first commercial product. The Lyon, France-based firm does see some high growth segments of the market about to emerge. These include MEMS-based speakers, camera auto focus, ID trackers, smart phone digital compass and oscillators, among others. These will account for 10 percent of the total $17 billion MEMS market in 2015 and all will experience growth rates over 60 percent.
Some of the functionality the MEMS devices will provide include augmented reality and more immersive gaming experiences, precise sensing of hand jitter to improve image quality and video stability, new motion-based user interfaces, GPS dead reckoning for vehicles and indoor pedestrian navigation among others. Lack of off-the-shelf solutions that can be quickly and easily adopted has slowed widespread adoption, as OEMs have had to assemble all the hardware and develop proprietary algorithms to process the sensor data.
InvenSense, Inc. wants to eliminate this hurdle. Last week, the Sunnyvale, California-base company announced its MPU-6000 product family. The MPU-6000 is which integrates a 3-axis gyroscope and a 3-axis accelerometer on the same silicon die together with an onboard Digital Motion Processor (DMP) that can process complex 9-axis sensor fusion algorithms. The MPU-6000 family of MotionProcessors eliminates the challenges associated with selection and integration of many different motion sensors that could require signal conditioning, sensor fusion and factory calibration. It features integrated 9-axis sensor fusion algorithms that utilize an external magnetometer output through its master I2C bus to provide dead reckoning functionality.
Motion processing is expanding into smart phones, tablets, TV remotes, handheld gaming devices and gaming consoles, digital still and video cameras and many other consumer products. The InvenSense solution could reduce the time and cost of integrating this functionality into consumer products.
The MEMS Executive Congress 2010, where the latest technology is discussed and demonstrated, concluded last week showcasing future applications of MEMS. One example cited included shoes with embedded GPS receiver, small MEMS sensor and mobile phone transmitter to track the location of children and Alzheimer’s patients. Another example suggested that MEMS sensors, communications, and computing could be combined to create a smart home that interacted with its residence.
Keynote speaker Dr. Dan Siewiorek, professor of computer science and electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University’s Quality of Life Center, described a future with a MEMS-filled smart device that would monitor its owner’s heart rate during exercise, help the visually impaired to grocery-shop, and remember important social clues such as people’s names, phone numbers and directions. This intelligent digital assistant would help its owner navigate his environment and sustain him daily throughout his lifetime.
The market research and strategy consulting company, Yole Développement, founded in 1998, has been following the MEMS market for some time, paints the technology with a more practical brush. It says MEMS remains a fragmented market with a limited number of applications with a market size above $200M. Development of new MEMS applications takes $45M of investment and, on average, 4 years from start to first commercial product. The Lyon, France-based firm does see some high growth segments of the market about to emerge. These include MEMS-based speakers, camera auto focus, ID trackers, smart phone digital compass and oscillators, among others. These will account for 10 percent of the total $17 billion MEMS market in 2015 and all will experience growth rates over 60 percent.
Some of the functionality the MEMS devices will provide include augmented reality and more immersive gaming experiences, precise sensing of hand jitter to improve image quality and video stability, new motion-based user interfaces, GPS dead reckoning for vehicles and indoor pedestrian navigation among others. Lack of off-the-shelf solutions that can be quickly and easily adopted has slowed widespread adoption, as OEMs have had to assemble all the hardware and develop proprietary algorithms to process the sensor data.
InvenSense, Inc. wants to eliminate this hurdle. Last week, the Sunnyvale, California-base company announced its MPU-6000 product family. The MPU-6000 is which integrates a 3-axis gyroscope and a 3-axis accelerometer on the same silicon die together with an onboard Digital Motion Processor (DMP) that can process complex 9-axis sensor fusion algorithms. The MPU-6000 family of MotionProcessors eliminates the challenges associated with selection and integration of many different motion sensors that could require signal conditioning, sensor fusion and factory calibration. It features integrated 9-axis sensor fusion algorithms that utilize an external magnetometer output through its master I2C bus to provide dead reckoning functionality.
Motion processing is expanding into smart phones, tablets, TV remotes, handheld gaming devices and gaming consoles, digital still and video cameras and many other consumer products. The InvenSense solution could reduce the time and cost of integrating this functionality into consumer products.
Will Intel Big Bets on Emerging Technology Companies Pay Off?
On Tuesday this week at its 11th annual CEO Summit in Huntington Beach, California, Intel Capital, announced 18 new investments totaling $77 million in funding. That brings the total investment for 2010 to $247 million, slightly less than the $327 million the chip giant’s global investment organization made last year, said Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital and Intel executive vice president. The criterion for these investments is to increase demand for the compute continuum that is at the core of Intel Corp. business strategy.
The investments this year spanned the hot technologies of the being bandied about the worldwide technology community: cloud computing, green tech, mobile Internet, digital home, consumer Internet, software services, and chip manufacturing. Of these technologies, the buzzword that is currently making the rounds is Internet TV.
Sodhani suggested the Internet connected TV when asked what the theme for the event next year might be. The wisdom of this suggestion is supported by a Yankee Group study this year of more than 6,000 U.S. consumers. The market research firm’s findings suggest that “one in eight consumers will eliminate or scale back their cable, satellite or other pay-TV service this year.” With 100 million cable/satellite/telco subscribers at the moment, that could mean 12.5 million are going to reduce or cut their service in the next 12 months. The presumption is that these cord cutters will end up watching video over the Internet.
Intel Capital’s investment in Verismo Networks’ of Mountain View, Calif. and Bangalore is one of its Internet TV plays. Verismo is developing an open Internet TV platform. The platform seamlessly converges IPTV linear channels, Internet video, social networking and personal media for playback directly to the TV. Service providers provide a set-top box that provides cable TV content as well as video content from the Internet.
Another example is Althea Systems based in Bangalore, India. Althea’s Shufflr, a social video browser, works with cloud-based Shufflr's video discovery platform sold to service providers. The solution makes it easier to find and share online videos across various devices. The software on the cloud aggregates video from several sources and combines machine aided and social discovery engines to help users locate video. Coming soon on smartphones, tablets and TVs, Shufflr will provide a continuity of video experience from one device to another.
However, Sodhani set his portfolio companies the formidable challenge of solving the end consumers’ problem of being able to access video content any place at any time on any device. Foster City, California-base Sling Media, Inc., an affiliate of EchoStar Corp. addressed the problem of place and time shifting by moving content from the consumers’ TV to his PC and cell phone. The tricky part is getting the Internet content onto the TV. The easy part is getting YouTube on TV. The difficult part is getting broadcast and cable TV content on-demand over the Internet. This problem has little to do with technology and everything to do with monetization.
Can Intel and its portfolio companies solve this conundrum. Verismo Networks suggest a solution that might work for India but might not in the U.S. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOFU7dros_o&feature=player_embedded
The investments this year spanned the hot technologies of the being bandied about the worldwide technology community: cloud computing, green tech, mobile Internet, digital home, consumer Internet, software services, and chip manufacturing. Of these technologies, the buzzword that is currently making the rounds is Internet TV.
Sodhani suggested the Internet connected TV when asked what the theme for the event next year might be. The wisdom of this suggestion is supported by a Yankee Group study this year of more than 6,000 U.S. consumers. The market research firm’s findings suggest that “one in eight consumers will eliminate or scale back their cable, satellite or other pay-TV service this year.” With 100 million cable/satellite/telco subscribers at the moment, that could mean 12.5 million are going to reduce or cut their service in the next 12 months. The presumption is that these cord cutters will end up watching video over the Internet.
Intel Capital’s investment in Verismo Networks’ of Mountain View, Calif. and Bangalore is one of its Internet TV plays. Verismo is developing an open Internet TV platform. The platform seamlessly converges IPTV linear channels, Internet video, social networking and personal media for playback directly to the TV. Service providers provide a set-top box that provides cable TV content as well as video content from the Internet.
Another example is Althea Systems based in Bangalore, India. Althea’s Shufflr, a social video browser, works with cloud-based Shufflr's video discovery platform sold to service providers. The solution makes it easier to find and share online videos across various devices. The software on the cloud aggregates video from several sources and combines machine aided and social discovery engines to help users locate video. Coming soon on smartphones, tablets and TVs, Shufflr will provide a continuity of video experience from one device to another.
However, Sodhani set his portfolio companies the formidable challenge of solving the end consumers’ problem of being able to access video content any place at any time on any device. Foster City, California-base Sling Media, Inc., an affiliate of EchoStar Corp. addressed the problem of place and time shifting by moving content from the consumers’ TV to his PC and cell phone. The tricky part is getting the Internet content onto the TV. The easy part is getting YouTube on TV. The difficult part is getting broadcast and cable TV content on-demand over the Internet. This problem has little to do with technology and everything to do with monetization.
Can Intel and its portfolio companies solve this conundrum. Verismo Networks suggest a solution that might work for India but might not in the U.S. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOFU7dros_o&feature=player_embedded
Monday, November 15, 2010
Are RFID Tags About to Take Hold?
On Monday November 15th, OATSystems, a Division of Checkpoint Systems Inc. of Waltham, Massachusetts announced its latest edition of RFID Asset Tracking Solution, which complies with the Air Transport Association’s (ATA) Spec 2000 Standard. (a comprehensive set of e-business specifications, products and services that are designed to overcome challenges that have plagued the airline industry’s industry's supply chain for decades.)
The new RFID solution generates a unique record for every part used to build an aircraft. The solution captures the part’s manufacturing details and ongoing maintenance history in an RFID tag with high capacity memory that will remain with the part throughout its useful life. The ATA Spec 2000 enables information exchange among every supplier involved in the manufacture, repair and operation of commercial and military aircraft. The information contained in the tag is readily available at any point in the part’s serviceable life.
The airline industry is the low-hanging fruit for RFID adoption. The information need is critical and cost of the sophisticated RFID tag is easily justified. This represents a significant growth opportunity for a technology that has been dominated by the access control and automobile immobilization market, which will manage a modest 6 percent growth through 2014 according to market research firm ABI Research. The firm predicts the industry to be worth $5.35B in 2010, 15 percent higher than last year. Driving this increase will applications such as the asset management solution from OATSystems and cargo tracking, two sectors expected to grow 19 percent year over year. Another application to see high growth through 2014 is real time location systems: baggage handling, animal ID, item level tagging of fashion apparel and retail.
The most visible proponent of RFID tags is retailing Wal-Mart, which will mandate item-level RFID tagging for four categories of clothing: men's jeans, T-shirts, socks, and underwear. Wal-Mart has already been tagging at the pallet level and case level for some time now. The 7-cent RFID tag have increased inventory accuracy and improved sales not only for Wal-Mart but also at other retailers like Bloomingdale's, J.C. Penney, and The Gap who have also been testing the tags’ effectiveness.
However, there is a dark side to RFID tags in the retail product area. The tags are not removed from the object before it leaves the stores. Thus, it’s possible that the tag can be read later by any scanner able to detect the signal. If you return to the store wearing the apparel you purchased there, the store knows you’ve returned, what you purchased and can market to you more effectively. RFID credit cards may soon allow you to make purchases simply by scanning the card in front of the reader or simply walking through a scanner when getting on public transit. You see where this is going: retailers and government agencies collecting information on an individual’s preferences as well as behavior.
As with most technologies, the initial reticence is quickly overcome by the convenience and efficiency the consumer experiences. The best example is the EZ Pass transponder on cars speeding through tollbooths, providing location information on the driver at each transaction. It’s not a matter of will RFIDs take hold it’s a matter of when. And all indications are that they’re catching on now.
The new RFID solution generates a unique record for every part used to build an aircraft. The solution captures the part’s manufacturing details and ongoing maintenance history in an RFID tag with high capacity memory that will remain with the part throughout its useful life. The ATA Spec 2000 enables information exchange among every supplier involved in the manufacture, repair and operation of commercial and military aircraft. The information contained in the tag is readily available at any point in the part’s serviceable life.
The airline industry is the low-hanging fruit for RFID adoption. The information need is critical and cost of the sophisticated RFID tag is easily justified. This represents a significant growth opportunity for a technology that has been dominated by the access control and automobile immobilization market, which will manage a modest 6 percent growth through 2014 according to market research firm ABI Research. The firm predicts the industry to be worth $5.35B in 2010, 15 percent higher than last year. Driving this increase will applications such as the asset management solution from OATSystems and cargo tracking, two sectors expected to grow 19 percent year over year. Another application to see high growth through 2014 is real time location systems: baggage handling, animal ID, item level tagging of fashion apparel and retail.
The most visible proponent of RFID tags is retailing Wal-Mart, which will mandate item-level RFID tagging for four categories of clothing: men's jeans, T-shirts, socks, and underwear. Wal-Mart has already been tagging at the pallet level and case level for some time now. The 7-cent RFID tag have increased inventory accuracy and improved sales not only for Wal-Mart but also at other retailers like Bloomingdale's, J.C. Penney, and The Gap who have also been testing the tags’ effectiveness.
However, there is a dark side to RFID tags in the retail product area. The tags are not removed from the object before it leaves the stores. Thus, it’s possible that the tag can be read later by any scanner able to detect the signal. If you return to the store wearing the apparel you purchased there, the store knows you’ve returned, what you purchased and can market to you more effectively. RFID credit cards may soon allow you to make purchases simply by scanning the card in front of the reader or simply walking through a scanner when getting on public transit. You see where this is going: retailers and government agencies collecting information on an individual’s preferences as well as behavior.
As with most technologies, the initial reticence is quickly overcome by the convenience and efficiency the consumer experiences. The best example is the EZ Pass transponder on cars speeding through tollbooths, providing location information on the driver at each transaction. It’s not a matter of will RFIDs take hold it’s a matter of when. And all indications are that they’re catching on now.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Is Augmented Reality Ready for Prime Time?
In the 21st Century, no question you have will go unanswered if the promise of augmented reality really comes true. Your smartphone equipped with augmented reality will identify and describe in sound, images, and/or moving 3D objects anything, anywhere you point your smartphone camera at. The real world will have become a place that you can “mouse over” and “click” with your phone and your reality will become augmented by all the data that the phone can assemble on that object—visualize the technology depicted in the Tom Curse flick “Minority Report”. (I wonder if it will work when you point your camera phone at a person.)
Among others Qualcomm recently recommitted to the technology. At the end of June, the company announced plans to offer an augmented reality platform and software development kit (SDK) to enable vision-based augmented reality applications. On November 10, Qualcomm teamed up with Unity Technologies, which claims to offer the development platform of choice for both 2D and 3D game development on mobile platforms. Qualcomm is making its Augmented Reality Extension available for Unity. Now, game developers like Trilogy Studio, creator of MTV’s “Pimp my Ride” game can use Qualcomm’s platform to add augmented reality functionality to games they develop or that’s the theory.
The poster child for this SciFi technology is the Dutch company Layar, who’s CEO Raimo van der Klein was featured this year in Time magazine’s September 9th issue in the article “Tech Pioneers: 10 Start-Ups That Will Change Your Life.” Layar’s Reality Browser, uses the smart phone's GPS data, accelerometer, compass and gyroscope to determine where its user is and what direction he’s pointing his camera. The browser then overlays information about whatever the user’s camera is viewing, for example, a historic building, which appears in the phone’s display along perhaps with a decades-old photo of it—as the Time article suggests.
Another company providing both the platform for as well as the augmented reality applications is Artificial Life, which released its third quarter results this week showing a 21 percent growth in revenue along with a 29 percent boost in income over the previous quarter of 2009. The company attributed the growth to its Opus-M, a modular m-commerce platform that can turn a brick-and-mortar storefront to a secure on-line business, with augmented reality to enhance the shopping experience. The company also produces a line of iPhone/iPad games that it’s porting onto smartphones running Android and Windows Phone 7 Operating Systems.
Last year there was a major push to bring augmented reality applications and browsers to mobile devices equipped with GPS, cameras, compasses, and accelerometers. In July this year the Augmented Planet website cited 54 new augmented reality iPhone applications published in July was 54 bringing the total to 605 such applications available for the iPhone. Juniper Research proclaimed the mobile augmented reality market will reach $732 million by 2014, fueled by paid application downloads, subscription services and advertising.
In a world where the smartphone has become the electronic appliance for everyman, there is a major push by hardware and software vendors to pack more sensors, communications, and multimedia technology into this mobile device. Thus, it’s becoming an amalgam of artificial intelligent concierge, man Friday, and entertainment center for the multitasking, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disordered worker bees we've all become. Augmented Reality is yet another means of the machine adapting to the personality of its owners.
Among others Qualcomm recently recommitted to the technology. At the end of June, the company announced plans to offer an augmented reality platform and software development kit (SDK) to enable vision-based augmented reality applications. On November 10, Qualcomm teamed up with Unity Technologies, which claims to offer the development platform of choice for both 2D and 3D game development on mobile platforms. Qualcomm is making its Augmented Reality Extension available for Unity. Now, game developers like Trilogy Studio, creator of MTV’s “Pimp my Ride” game can use Qualcomm’s platform to add augmented reality functionality to games they develop or that’s the theory.
The poster child for this SciFi technology is the Dutch company Layar, who’s CEO Raimo van der Klein was featured this year in Time magazine’s September 9th issue in the article “Tech Pioneers: 10 Start-Ups That Will Change Your Life.” Layar’s Reality Browser, uses the smart phone's GPS data, accelerometer, compass and gyroscope to determine where its user is and what direction he’s pointing his camera. The browser then overlays information about whatever the user’s camera is viewing, for example, a historic building, which appears in the phone’s display along perhaps with a decades-old photo of it—as the Time article suggests.
Another company providing both the platform for as well as the augmented reality applications is Artificial Life, which released its third quarter results this week showing a 21 percent growth in revenue along with a 29 percent boost in income over the previous quarter of 2009. The company attributed the growth to its Opus-M, a modular m-commerce platform that can turn a brick-and-mortar storefront to a secure on-line business, with augmented reality to enhance the shopping experience. The company also produces a line of iPhone/iPad games that it’s porting onto smartphones running Android and Windows Phone 7 Operating Systems.
Last year there was a major push to bring augmented reality applications and browsers to mobile devices equipped with GPS, cameras, compasses, and accelerometers. In July this year the Augmented Planet website cited 54 new augmented reality iPhone applications published in July was 54 bringing the total to 605 such applications available for the iPhone. Juniper Research proclaimed the mobile augmented reality market will reach $732 million by 2014, fueled by paid application downloads, subscription services and advertising.
In a world where the smartphone has become the electronic appliance for everyman, there is a major push by hardware and software vendors to pack more sensors, communications, and multimedia technology into this mobile device. Thus, it’s becoming an amalgam of artificial intelligent concierge, man Friday, and entertainment center for the multitasking, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disordered worker bees we've all become. Augmented Reality is yet another means of the machine adapting to the personality of its owners.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Can Technology Help Vegas Boost Their Odds over Gamblers?
No place on earth says “gambling” like Las Vegas, not Atlantic City. not Macau, not Monte Carlo, nor Singapore. If you want to lose your money, the place to go is Vegas. Next week, Glitter Gulch hosts Global Gaming Expo (G2E), which runs from Monday through Thursday with exhibits in the Central and North Halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center. In the conference center that straddles Desert Inn Road South of the large Central Hall, there will be four days of presentations and panels informing casino owners on everything from the newest legislation, especially for on-line gaming, to the latest technology to maximize a casino’s return.
In one track entitled “Social Media 101: The Basics For Gaming,” the description is as follows: “a year or two ago social media was seen an emerging trend—today it is a way of life. If you're not connecting to your customers through social media, you are missing a valuable, and cost-efficient, marketing opportunity. Many casinos understand they must venture out into the social media landscape, and at this session, attendees will learn how to implement social media to create a relationship-building opportunity for direct communication with your customers.” Trump Casinos is on Facebook with over 12,441 people who like them. So too does Golden Nugget Vegas Casino with 3,738 people who "like" it, but more importantly, 13,935 monthly active users who play the Golden Nugget Vegas Casino Facebook game, a simulation style game launched in August this year that will soon enable micro-transactions—the penny slot machines of social networking?
Another session, “Ask the Experts: Database Analytics Showdown” will explain how to mine the rich veins of information captured on casino guests. “Evolving database technologies continue to offer casino marketing executives new opportunities to capture a variety of information, including special interest coding, tiers of gaming value, demographic analysis and other powerful database components,” the track description says. “But, how can casino marketers sort through this data to capture the vital information they truly need? Is there a shortcut to making it all make sense? Is it possible to capture and understand a guest's experience beyond the gaming floor, and how can you utilize this wealth of information to make sensible and cost-efficient decisions? Find out the answers to all of these questions and more at this highly interactive session.”
And yet another track, “Mobile vs. Direct Marketing: Two of a Kind?” declares, “the mobile generation is here. The smart phone did in several years what it took the computer generation 10 years to accomplish. But what does this mean for the gaming industry? This session will examine how mobile marketing can augment traditional marketing activities or even replace existing processes to make them more cost-effective and efficient. Whether it is mobile couponing, event based promotions, loyalty clubs, the mobile concierge, direct marketing communication or customer satisfaction surveys—mobile marketing offers a wide variety of business sound, practical applications.” All of those coupon books you got when you checked in have now been automated with the information gleamed from the casino’s database analysis—if you’re a returning guest—to provide you with exactly the right temptation to get you to stay and play.
When I attended one of the last Comdex conferences held in Vegas, I remember entering a private event being held at a casino restaurant. A couple leaving the restaurant, obviously annoyed at being turned away, asked one another who the hell was Hewlett-Packard. Then as now casinos know high tech companies and use their information technology to further increase their odds over individual gamblers.
In one track entitled “Social Media 101: The Basics For Gaming,” the description is as follows: “a year or two ago social media was seen an emerging trend—today it is a way of life. If you're not connecting to your customers through social media, you are missing a valuable, and cost-efficient, marketing opportunity. Many casinos understand they must venture out into the social media landscape, and at this session, attendees will learn how to implement social media to create a relationship-building opportunity for direct communication with your customers.” Trump Casinos is on Facebook with over 12,441 people who like them. So too does Golden Nugget Vegas Casino with 3,738 people who "like" it, but more importantly, 13,935 monthly active users who play the Golden Nugget Vegas Casino Facebook game, a simulation style game launched in August this year that will soon enable micro-transactions—the penny slot machines of social networking?
Another session, “Ask the Experts: Database Analytics Showdown” will explain how to mine the rich veins of information captured on casino guests. “Evolving database technologies continue to offer casino marketing executives new opportunities to capture a variety of information, including special interest coding, tiers of gaming value, demographic analysis and other powerful database components,” the track description says. “But, how can casino marketers sort through this data to capture the vital information they truly need? Is there a shortcut to making it all make sense? Is it possible to capture and understand a guest's experience beyond the gaming floor, and how can you utilize this wealth of information to make sensible and cost-efficient decisions? Find out the answers to all of these questions and more at this highly interactive session.”
And yet another track, “Mobile vs. Direct Marketing: Two of a Kind?” declares, “the mobile generation is here. The smart phone did in several years what it took the computer generation 10 years to accomplish. But what does this mean for the gaming industry? This session will examine how mobile marketing can augment traditional marketing activities or even replace existing processes to make them more cost-effective and efficient. Whether it is mobile couponing, event based promotions, loyalty clubs, the mobile concierge, direct marketing communication or customer satisfaction surveys—mobile marketing offers a wide variety of business sound, practical applications.” All of those coupon books you got when you checked in have now been automated with the information gleamed from the casino’s database analysis—if you’re a returning guest—to provide you with exactly the right temptation to get you to stay and play.
When I attended one of the last Comdex conferences held in Vegas, I remember entering a private event being held at a casino restaurant. A couple leaving the restaurant, obviously annoyed at being turned away, asked one another who the hell was Hewlett-Packard. Then as now casinos know high tech companies and use their information technology to further increase their odds over individual gamblers.
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