I’ve always found the idea that so many IoT startups and established companies do POCs or Proof of Concepts strange. I also find it unfortunate that many enterprises start off with POCs. Why do so many IoT vendors lead into sales opportunities with POCs with prospective customers and why do so many enterprise end users seemingly entrap these poor little startups in some hellish cycle of pre-sales POC giveaways? More often than not, when you speak to the founders of these IoT startup firms, they are frustrated by the difficulty of getting customers or prospects to pay up. So how did we into this unusual situation as a “industry”? Wasn’t IoT supposed to be easy to sell? Didn’t every business want it? Evidently, the answer is not exactly yes.
Category: Point of View
The US-China Tech War: Technology and Digital Economic Leadership at the Crossroads
ast week, the US Senate passed the USICA (The United States Innovation and Competition Act) which includes the CHIPS for America Act. Despite what the title of the USICA and its sub articles might suggest, the policy is largely a manifesto for dealing with a rising and highly competitive China with particular concern for the Western rival’s ambition to achieve semiconductor self-sufficiency and Huawei’s ascension as the leading 5G technology vendor. The Act presents several concrete policy measures to diminish China’s access to US semiconductor technologies and 52 billion USD in federal funding to build a more resilient semiconductor supply chain. But will these policies help the US achieve what the title of the USICA suggest; improve US semiconductor supply chain resiliency and competitiveness in 5G? Will it stop the technological advancement of China and its digital economy long enough for the West to tame it?
Tech Insight: RISC-V – Ready or Not?
The semiconductor industry has never faced a more tumultuous and exciting time than now. Competition, innovations, and geopolitics are forcing tectonic shifts in the industry landscape. These shifts have put a spotlight on RISC-V from multiple vantage points that highlight its emerging importance. While it is still early days, SiFive has been at the forefront of advancing the RISC-V agenda and bringing it to the mainstream. The company’s founders are the founders of the open semiconductor standard. How are they approaching an incredibly dynamic market and fast-changing industry?
Tech Insight: Zero Trust in a Trust-challenged World
Today, you can’t talk about security without mentioning zero trust. What is it and why is it such a prevalent principle and practice that dominates cybersecurity speak whether you are talking about an enterprise network, the emerging edge cloud or the 5G network? John Kindervag, SVP of Cybersecurity Strategy at ON2IT and creator of Zero Trust, joins neXt Curve to recalibrate our understanding of his brainchild and to discuss why it has become an important part of our cybersecurity vernacular.
Industry Insight: The CBRS Neutral Host Opportunity
When the FCC held the first auction of CBRS (Citizens Band Radio Service), it raised hopes that novel neutral host models will emerge that improve the economics of indoor cellular networks and bring some of the promise of 5G into venues of all sizes. What is the neutral host opportunity presented by CBRS and what are the economic considerations for the business of establishing and running a neutral host network.
Technology Insight: NEOM
What if technology could not just make cities “smarter” but help us entirely reimagine the idea of a city of the future? NEOM is a visionary giga project that aspires to apply the most advanced in current and emerging technologies to realize a bold urban development concept called THE LINE, the revolutionary infrastructure concept that will bring about the world’s first “cognitive city”.
Industry Insight: A Crisis in Trust & Privacy
For the foreseeable future, we will be challenged with the daunting task of updating our regulatory policies and measures to effectively keep individuals safe as digital technologies continuously create new avenues for dubious actors to impact our personal lives as well as our national security. In this episode, we discuss the myriad of issues that are contributing to a global crisis in trust & privacy that threaten to upend our societies, our economies and our individual rights.
Tech Insight: The Open RAN Movement
Excitement about the open RAN movement continues to rise as operators such as Rakuten proves out OpenRAN and O-RAN principles in their greenfield 5G network which went live last year. How are major network equipment manufacturers adjusting to the new technology landscape? What are the benefits and costs to operators and vendors in adopting open and interoperable technologies?
Industry Insight: A Biden Tech Policy
On January 20th, a new US Administration took office in the midst of a global pandemic, economic crisis and deteriorated Sino-US trade & security relations. During the Trump Administration, the tech industry became the epicenter of the trade war as US and China quickly escalated their exchange of tit-for-tat tariffs and bans. What will change under a Biden Administration if anything?
The Essentiality of 5G Invention
As the new Biden Administration settles into the White House and contemplates how to deal with a rising China as it inherits a highly escalated tech war with the second largest economy, the topic of technology leadership has come to the forefront of trade and national security concerns. In particular, 5G is seen as the strategic technology that will be the catalyst for revolutionary economic and societal transformation. But 5G cannot and will not happen without essential mobile wireless technologies. Increasingly, the competitiveness of a nation is deemed to rely on leadership in strategic technologies, namely, 5G.