Samsung Acquiring Luxury Appliance Maker Dacor
Samsung is growing its stake in the smart-home market. The electronics giant announced this week that it has entered into an agreement to purchase Dacor, a 51-year-old American manufacturer of high-end kitchen appliances. Some of Dacor’s cooking products sport integrated Wi-Fi-enabled Android tablets that run Dacor’s iQ cooking app. While in the kitchen, the app can be used to access recipes or watch tutorials, but users can connect to the tablet remotely, using an Android phone, to set the oven’s temperature or timers remotely.
The deal will make Dacor, which is headquartered in Southern California, a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics America. According to a release from Samsung, the deal will result in no changes to Dacor’s corporate identity or brand, nor will it impact U.S.-based manufacturing operations, which employ 240 people. Samsung did not disclose the terms of the deal, but according to The Los Angeles Times, Samsung paid more than $150 million for Dacor and was bidding against several other companies in the electronics and appliance industry, including LG and Haier.
New LoRa IoT Development Kit Built on Libelium Hardware
Spanish firm Libelium, which provides sensor networks for smart-city applications, and Loriot, a Swiss IoT software provider, along with radio module manufacturer Semtech, have co-developed an IoT development kit comprising a gateway and 10 sensor devices that communicate over the LoRa protocol for a low-power, long-range wide-area network (LPWAN). It also includes application software and a subscription to Loriot’s cloud-based LoRaWAN network. The development kit is optimized for proof-of-concept projects for smart-city, security, environmental-monitoring or smart-agriculture applications. It is available for use in North America, operating at 915 MHz, or in Europe, operating at 868 MHz. The kit can be purchased online for €5,200 ($5,811).
Cayenne Upgrade Includes Arduino Support
MyDevices, which sells software that uses protocol translators to connect devices virtually to an end user’s applications or platforms, has formed a partnership with open-source hardware provider Arduino, through which Cayenne, myDevice’s drag-and-drop IoT network-development tool, includes support for Arduino development boards. Cayenne lets users link Arduino microcontrollers to myDevice’s secure cloud and then control actuators, as well as visualize sensor data through the myDevice web dashboard or smartphone app.
The companies say comparison tests conducted by HexCorp, a product design consulting firm, showed that a developer could build an Arduino-based sensor with a temperature sensor and an LED light bulb six times faster when using Cayenne than without the drag-and-drop tool.
Ayyeka, Sigfox Forge Partnership
Ayyeka, a Jerusalem-based provider of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solutions—specifically for water and wastewater management. as well as for environmental monitoring—has announced that Sigfox, a provider of long-range, low-power wide area network (LPWAN) technology, has certified Ayyeka’s remote-monitoring system as a network partner. Through this channel partnership, the two firms are currently developing a pilot program that will take place in San Francisco. The details have not yet been disclosed.
For the past few years, Sigfox has been deploying infrastructure to build out its network across 23 countries. Sigfox uses an ultra-narrow-band radio frequency protocol—meaning it relies on very narrow slices of the unlicensed Industrial Scientific Medical (ISM) frequency band—and operates at 868 MHz in Europe and the 902 MHz band in the United States.
Ayyeka, which initially relied only on cellular modems integrated into its devices to transmit data, has also successfully integrated support of LPWAN technology compliant with the LoRa Alliance.
IndoorAtlas Wins €2.2 Million European Commission Grant
IndoorAtlas, which sells an indoor location-tracking service based on a proprietary geomagnetic indoor positioning technology, says it has received €2.2 million ($2.5 million) from the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 grants program. Horizon 2020 is the largest E.U. research and innovation program, with nearly €80 billion ($80.4 billion) in funding available throughout a span of seven years. It selects grant recipients based on technological breakthroughs with the potential to drive economic growth.
IndoorAtlas says its technology is scalable, accurate and cost-effective, and that it empowers developers to create customized mobile applications for indoor venues, such as shopping centers, airports, resorts and hospitals.
The award is part of a campaign focused on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In total, 65 SMEs from 18 countries were awarded up to €2.5 million ($2.8 million)—or up to €5 million ($5.6 million) for health projects—to finance such activities as demonstration or pilot projects, scaling production and miniaturization. The winning companies also receive 12 days of business coaching.
Horizon 2020’s SME program has become a focus of many E.U. businesses, with 19,320 proposals received durig the past two years. The program has funded 1,443 of these projects, through a total investment of €527 million ($589 million). (As noted in an IOT Journal perspective piece by Nick Monnickendam—the marketing director of U.K. IoT platform provider Flexeye—due to the passage of Brexit, U.K. firms are no longer eligible to apply for E.U. programs such as Horizon 2020, and will thus need to seek alternative public- or private-sector financing options.)
Gartner Says IoT Is Nearing Top of Hype Cycle in Africa
Market research firm Gartner, famous for its Hype Cycle model in which it gauges the trajectory that it believes various technologies are taking, says that the Internet of Things is entering the Peak of Inflated Expectations in Africa (this is followed by an expected falter called the Trough of Disillusionment, before making market corrections to enter the Slope of Enlightenment). Gartner foresees wide IoT adoption in Africa happening within two to five years, during which its impact on local businesses will be greatest. In particular, the organization claims, the IoT will have the most profound impact on Africa’s insurance sector.
In a press statement, Gartner principal analyst William Hahn said, “A growing number of insurers are seriously evaluating how the IoT might best be used, especially in terms of improving the customer experience.” African insurers are expected to begin leveraging IoT data, collected from things such as OBD devices inserted into vehicles, to track specific usage patterns. “Drivers will be charged premiums based not only on how far they drive, but also on how safely they drive and the degree of risk associated with when and where they drive,” he added in the press statement.
Expected benefits from this shift include lowering risk for insurers and improving relationships with consumers, thereby resulting in greater customer loyalty to insurance providers.