News & Blog
After validation by the European Parliament, a new ITS Directive (Directive 2010/40/EUi) on the framework for the deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems in the field of road transport and for interfaces with other modes of transport, has entered into force on August 28, 2010.
Over the past years, with success of movies like “An inconvenient truth” from AL Gore or “Home” from Yann Arthus Bertrand, we have seen a growing commitment to reduce greenhouse gaz emissions (GHG). With the transport sector accounting for more than 13% of CO2 emission worldwide (IPCC2007i) and with road freight transport as the major and growing portion, there is a real focus of policy-makers and citizens-customers who are demanding for more information and regulation. We can observe here and there a global consensus on how to mitigate the GHG: from “hard” regulations like the road user charging systemsii, via disclosure of “carbon footprintiii” to more voluntary solutions like fuel monitoring. In one word, there is a need for more environmental-aware supply chains requiring the use of smart and innovative solutions.
No solution is stronger than its weakest link! Even if you have developed a perfect product and solution, bad choice of antenna might lead to hassle or unpredicted cost during installation and deployment. A poor built-in antenna might cause needs to use extensive amounts of external antennas, resulting in higher product- and installation cost. Read more
Visiting the ATA Telemedicine conference and exhibition in San Antoino made it quite clear that there is a large potential in digitalizing the health sector and enable remote health solutions. The area of chronic disease management is especially interesting since it is expected to account for 75-85% of total healthcare costs! Combining an aging population with increasing estimates for chronic diseases throughout the world the healthcare system in many countries will inevitably stand some huge challenges.
Much focus is currently on remote health monitoring systems – basically providing the care giver constant access to health status data, without the need for a physical visit. Examples of conditions suitable to monitor on remote are obesity, hypertension, sleep disorders, diabetes and cardiac disorders.
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Normally any communicating M2M device starts with a modem/module from manufacturers like Cinterion, Sierra Wireless, Telit or Ericsson. These modems have all been type approved according to tests specified by 2G (GSM) or 3G (UMTS) standards, just like any mobile phone in the market.
So far so good, but in the case of M2M these modems are then built into products (e.g electricity meters, vehicles, credit card terminals etc), so additional hardware and software is added to make a complete product. On top of that some sort of central system or service application is normally needed to retrieve, handle and store data from the products.
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Open platforms have been discussed for years, in the telematics and M2M space. They have always promised shorter development cycles, software re-use, a broad developer base and a way out from being dependant on one single supplier. But recently, I have feeling that there has been a new spice added to the mix, the long awaited possibility to make money by selling services.
Apple set the norm by the fantastic success of the Apple Appstore for the iPhone, iPod and now iPad. This has not given Apple’s competitors any rest, and we see “appstores” coming from every major device manufacturer today. You could of course argue that what Apple has created, is a long way from an open platform, as Apple owns all the IPRs themselves, and they are the only provider of the hardware. But where we cannot argue, is the fact they have managed to create an Ecosystem that allows third party developers the possibility to create, and perhaps most importantly, earn money on developing and selling applications.
