IoT News, Publications, Magazine & Newsletter | IoT Now

M2M Now Magazine explores the evolving opportunities and challenges facing CSPs across this sector. Our exclusive interviews pass on some key lessons learned by those who have taken the first steps in next gen Machine-to-Machine (M2M) services.

In this issue:

• TALKING HEADS: Applying the Uber model to the IoT? Nigel Chadwick, Stream Technologies’ CEO talks to M2M Now
• INTERVIEW: Gilli Coston, chief strategy officer and EMEA managing director, Wyless, on security as the emerging differentiator
• EXPERT OPINION: Settling consumers’ minds on security; a security check list for M2M device manufacturing
• M2M NOW ANALYST REPORT – THE CONNECTED CAR, FLEET MANAGEMENT AND TELEMATICS: In this edition’s specially commissioned Analyst Report, Jeremy Green, principal analyst at Machina Research, looks at the current state of the market, the main players and the impact of external forces on its future
• JAPAN SUPPLEMENT: Case studies and articles from Telenor Connexion and IQP, insights into Japan and IoT and doing business there

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Building an operating system for Planet Earth?

As we go to press with the second issue of M2M Now with me in the editor’s chair, I’ve been reflecting on what’s proved to be a fascinating few months in the role. While I’ve found throughout my career that the infinitely open world of networks and telecoms has brought me into contact with so many different industries and sectors, M2M – and especially the IoT – is taking me deeper into what are truly fractal realms of complexity. At times, talking to industry experts, I’ve had the feeling that we’re in the first stages of creating an operating system for the entire planet.

Where exactly humans are going to fit into this – especially with wearables creating what I’ve dubbed an ‘Internet of the Senses – is anyone’s guess. Certainly, with the growth of social media and the permanently connected lifestyle, the ex-biologist in me has a sneaking feeling that we might be ending our days as social apes and moving towards becoming some hybrid mammal form of social insect. After all, they also build cities, use language and tools, have social hierarchies and have been as successful as ourselves at colonising the planet….

On a more grounded note, this edition’s M2M Now Analyst Report on the connected car, fleet management and telematics, by Jeremy Green of Machina Research, explores the role that our sector is playing in finding more efficient – and indeed enjoyable and stressfree for drivers – ways for us to move ourselves and our goods around. Jeff Smith of Numerex also adds his views on the role that increasingly smart devices can play in protecting movable assets and securing logistics. In our Talking Heads pages, Stream’s Nigel Chadwick calls for our industry to learn lessons in innovation from some internet companies like Uber; a perspective echoed by Telit’s Alexander Bufalino in his BizTalk article. Security – and its intimate partner – risk, are also looked at from a number of directions by Gilli Coston of Wyless and some other contributors.

Finally, we’ve taken a bit of a step into the unknown with this issue – at least where language is concerned. The rising importance of Japan, both as originator of new technology as well as potential customer, has led us to produce our first foreign language content. Let us just say, with an engineer’s understatement, that it was a ‘non-trivial problem’ and our designer is now slowly recovering from the experience.