Taiwanese PC maker Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday inked strategic multinational partnerships in an effort to continue expanding its cloud-computing ecosystem.
Acer is to join forces with US semiconductor company Marvell Technology Group, UK-based software company Canonical Ltd and Chinese smart devices maker Hipad Intelligence Co (智慧海派) to explore possibilities in Internet of Things (IoT) development, Maverick Shih (施宣輝), president of Acer’s cloud-computing BYOC (Build Your Own Cloud) unit, told a news conference in Taipei.
“Our aim is to accelerate time-to-market for all those who are investing time, energy and creativity in IoT projects,” Shih said.
From Acer’s cloud-computing services, Marvell’s chipsets and Canonical’s Ubuntu operating system to Hipad’s smart home devices, the partnerships enable the companies to vertically utilize each other’s capabilities, Acer BYOC BU general manager Robert Wang (王定愷) said.
The company said that Marvell’s chipsets integrated with Acer’s cloud-computing services would create a smart home ecosystem for Hipad with monitoring, controlling, notification and data collection functions.
As an example, Wang said Hipad’s cloud-enabled kettle, which uses Marvell’s IoT chipsets, would allow users to remotely start boiling water through a mobile app before arriving home.
A collaboration between Acer and Canonical demonstrates that Acer’s aBeing One minicomputer, which runs on Ubuntu, could alert users when an intruder enters their smart home, Wang said.
The aBeing One smart home solutions would signal the IP camera to record a short video of the incident and store it into the aBeing One, Wang said, adding that a message alert would be sent to the home owner’s smartphone from aBeing One instantly.
“Together we are exploring the IoT business model and possibilities,” Wang said, adding that Acer is to announce some “milestone” projects with its strategic partners later this year.
“It could be a new product launch or market development, but we will not disclose too much information for the time being,” he said.
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