Advantech Co (研華) yesterday previewed its vision for an Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) market, which it said would gradually take shape in the next five to 10 years and add value to the company’s hardware offerings
The world’s largest industrial computer supplier aims to sow the seeds for the IIoT market through a “cocreation” model, making early bets on developers of intelligent solutions that would be powered by its cloud computing platform, Advantech chairman K.C. Liu (劉克振) said.
IIoT applications would become widely implemented across a multitude of industries and Advantech is working closely with industry professionals to integrate their knowledge with the coming technology shift and create solution-ready packages (SRPs), Liu said at a news conference at the company’s IoT Campus in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口).
Eventually, the SRPs would become an important aspect of the IIoT supply chain, along with sensors, edge computing, communications, and platform as a service (PaaS) and other cloud-based services.
Edge computing is a method of optimizing cloud computing by having some computation performed at the device level, whereas PaaS involves providing companies with the cloud infrastructure necessary to build and maintain applications.
However, the IIoT space is fragmented, and the company is working hard to create standardized and easily duplicated SRPs based on a combination of software and hardware products that could be rolled out by system integrators, Liu said.
Advantech showcased nine SRP partners that are developing intelligent solutions for managing hospital wards, vehicle fleets, factory equipment and other facilities.
The company in March approved plans to acquire a 19 percent stake in Nippon RAD Inc to help it become a leading system integrator in the vast Japanese market, Liu added.
Advantech has been offering its WISE PaaS service, a new cloud-enabled platform, at a very accessible price for its development partners during the growth stage, he said.
The company has also scaled down its venture capital activities to focus on investing in its development partners and acquiring stakes of 20 to 30 percent in like-minded IIoT start-ups and partners, Liu said.
“We expect US$500 million in overall incremental revenue gains by 2023,” Liu said, adding that the smart factory, or Industry 4.0, and smart city solutions segments would see the fastest IIoT deployment.
Liu envisions that the IIoT market would be divided into two segments: Half of the potential revenues would be controlled by hardware and software platform providers such as Advantech, while the other half would represented by SRP providers, he said.
The scheme would add value to Advantech’s hardware offerings, similar to how iPhones garnered popularity through Apple’s software and services, he said.
“We supply the beef to supply the steakhouses that would be opened up by our SRP partners,” Liu added.
Meanwhile, the company said it would be ready to unveil 30 SRPs at its IoT Co-Creation Summit which is scheduled for November in Suzhou, China.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”