by Gary Mintchell | Aug 26, 2009 | M2M
I saw this on the GigaOm network about Qualcomm and Verizon forming a company to be called nPhase. Actually Qualcomm bought a company in the M2M (machine-to-machine) space in 2006 called nPhase. Prior to that purchase, I used to have regular communications with Steve Pazol, nPhase president about what M2M meant. The origin of the term in our space meant using cellular networks as a broadband for automatic communications from one machine to another–say a remote machine calling its creator with news or problems. This was promoted by cell phone manufacturers looking for new markets for their boards and service providers hoping to sell lots of unused bandwidth.
It never took off. Think about how reliable your cell phone connectivity was in the early part of this century–OK, just a few years ago. It’s better now, but still not greatly reliable. Think of the expense of cell phone minutes versus WiFi connected eventually to the Internet.
I continue to look at cellular technology as just one little piece of a broader M2M (actually, the founder and editor of a magazine devoted to the space just lamented the demise of the name) that can use any one of a number of connectivity options. Smart phones, by the way, are actually driving up WiFi usage–not what the Verizons of the world wanted. If WiMax comes to the US, that would be another cell challenge. But I hope Steve, who remains as head of this new entity, is able to carve out a market there. Connectivity is a good thing.
by Gary Mintchell | Aug 26, 2009 | Marketing
I have been getting less and less out of Twitter and I’m noticing that the technology evangelists are starting to move away as well. Here’s a post from a couple of months ago from the guy who put Twitter on the map–Robert Scoble. And a Web Worker Daily post from this weekend about blogs. We try these things out, but some things stay the same. Blogs are just a method of publishing–anyone can become an editor, so to speak. The various connecting technologies–Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, IM, whatever–are for connecting people to their friends and acquaintances, but not so much for business. Magazines use Twitter for “link bait” to try to drive up search engine optimization and Web site hits. A couple of companies have used Twitter effectively for customer services–but actually it was just someone in the company. I bet when the hierarchy takes over they’ll kill it. The best I get is connecting with some people I know or Emerson’s Mike Boudreaux’s updates on process plants’ safety incidents on Twitter.
by Gary Mintchell | Aug 26, 2009 | Marketing
Here something for you “social marketing gurus” to mull over. Rex Hammock discusses two marketing campaigns–a winner and a loser.
by Gary Mintchell | Aug 22, 2009 | Automation, Safety
Another busy week with two full days of lost writing time. But–there were two meetings where companies were celebrating 10 years of success. On Monday, Wes and I had a conference call with folks from Rockwell Automation Safety who were touting the company’s success in that market ten years after it made a decision to jump into the market with both feet. ARC Advisory Group recently anointed it the market leader in combined machine and process, and in machine safety.
Then while I was in Chicago, Yokogawa representatives visited the Summit Publishing offices with its latest DAQ station (data acquisition) celebrating the company’s success with its data acquisition product line–also after 10 years. 1999 must have been a good year. It was a good briefing bringing up to date with the latest Yokogawa products organization and giving us a good feel for the data acquisition product line.
I went to Chicago for an all-day briefing at Mitsubishi Electric Automation in Vernon Hills. There were no new announcements, but the company’s new automation platforms built on the IQ series seem to be catching on. According to its calculations, Mitsubishi is perhaps the overall second in market share in its combined automation markets. The US branch has reorganized marketing over the past couple of years, and if they can get some marketing communications going, you’ll recognize the name as an automation player over here.
by Gary Mintchell | Aug 22, 2009 | Automation, Operations Management
Audio recap of NI Week. (with any luck, I’ll catch up on my extensive backlog this week.)
