Samsung wants to turn IoT data into money: In 2015, Samsung launched ARTIK, its entry into the IoT platform market. Now it is adding a layer to ARTIK that's aimed at helping IoT device makers generate revenue off the data they use. Here's the value proposition as stated in Samsung's announcement:
For device manufacturers, IoT shifts their operating model from selling hardware to selling hardware products connected to digital applications. Today, device manufacturers often have trouble recouping data costs associated with free applications and supporting an ecosystem of third-party devices, apps and services. Manufacturers have to either absorb the data costs of operating devices in the field, or factor in anticipated data costs to the retail price of devices.
Samsung ARTIK Cloud Monetization addresses this problem by providing a complete brokering, metering and payments system. It gives device manufacturers an easy way to make their devices interoperable with third-party devices and applications, and monetize data useage. With the Samsung ARTIK Cloud developer portal, device manufacturers have the flexibility to define service plans that meet their business needs. Samsung ARTIK Cloud brokers and meters user interactions against the defined plan, and manages upgrades, payments and revenue share back to the device OEM.
Some may quibble with Samsung's description of the service as the first of its kind, but it undeniably targets a legitimate pain point for IoT device makers.
Samsung's announcement fits into one of the four business models for IoT defined by Constellation VP and principal analyst Andy Mulholland—that of a broker. "Owners of endpoints and consumers of data in ecosystems from smart cities to transportation and alike need a middle broker who interconnects and charges," he says. "There are a host of services around categorization and context for the endpoint, as well as charging, that need to be provided. Given that Korea is one of the hottest spots for smart cities and ecosystems it would seem logical that Samsung ride their homemarket to bring this role into play. But western markets are not so advanced as to immediately be able to make use of this."
Google's native Chrome Ad-Blocker surfaces: Last month, news emerged that Google was developing a native ad-blocker for its Chrome browser. It seemed counterintuitive at first given how much Google depends on web advertising for revenue, but the idea is to block annoying ads and ultimately stop them from getting produced at all.
Now the tool has shown up in Canary, the pre-release version of Chrome for Android, as Techcrunch notes. Google is planning to make the tool generally available sometime next year, according to previous reports.
Google has joined up with the industry group Coalition for Better Ads, a group with members including Facebook, Unilever, Proctor & Gamble, Thomson Reuters and the World Federation of Advertisers. The CBA is fighting against a dozen types of desktop and mobile ads, including auto-playing video ads with sound, large sticky ads and full-screen scrollover ads.
POV: There are already effective ad-blocking extensions for Chrome and other browsers, but marketers and advertisers should take Google's move seriously, as Chrome commands more than 60 percent of the browser market. Users who haven't installed third-party ad blockers might feel more comfortable doing so with a native tool option.
Digital transfomation keeping some tech jobs back to U.S.: The New York Times took a look at the trend toward U.S. companies looking to onshore outsourcing companies for forward-thinking IT projects. While the piece's evidence is partly anecdotal, there are plenty of interesting nuggets, such as this one:
Monty Hamilton, a former Accenture consultant, took over Rural Sourcing in 2009, when it had just a dozen employees. Today, the company has 300 workers in four delivery centers: in Albuquerque; Augusta, Ga.; Jonesboro, Ark.; and Mobile, Ala. The payroll will reach about 400 people by the end of the year, Mr. Hamilton said.
“Every business now realizes it’s a digital business,” he said. “They need technical help, and that’s really driven the demand for our U.S.-based talent.”
As the NYT notes, massive offshoring players IBM and Infosys recently announced plans to hire an additional 35,000 workers in total over the next few years.
POV: There's no indication offshoring is in any great peril, given the amount of legacy systems that still need maintenance, preferably at a low cost. But the trend outlined in the story is for real, and as such enterprises undergoing digital transformation should shape their talent procurement strategies accordingly.
Legacy watch: Petitioners hope to save Adobe Flash from extinction: Adobe's long-standing but not-exactly-loved Flash multimedia player is set to be retired, but will live on in another form if backers of a new petition on Github have their way. The solution is for Adobe to open-source Flash and the related Shockwave application builder, which would be right thing to do, the petitioners say:
Flash along with its sister project Shockwave is an important piece of Internet history and killing Flash and Shockwave means future generations can't access the past. Games, experiments and websites would be forgotten.
Open sourcing Flash and the Shockwave spec would be a good solution to keep Flash and Shockwave projects alive safely for archive reasons. Don't know how, but that's the beauty of open source: you never know what will come up after you go open source!
We understand that there can be licensed components you might not be able to release. Simply leave them out with a note explaining what was removed. We will either bypass them, or replace them with open source alternatives.
POV: It's not clear how successful the petition will be, but there's certainly ample precedent of vendors releasing discarded proprietary code as open-source. That said, Flash usage has dropped substantially over the past few years as newer options such as HTML5 took hold, so there's the question of demand going forward. Moreover, Flash was notoriously buggy and insecure—could a fledgling open-source community do better than Adobe at issuing fixes and shoring up Flash's security? It might be best to let Flash just fade away, but if you want to sign the petition, go here.
