Home Blog Page 248

Dubai firm to cash in on growing demand for personal robots

Naushad K. Cherrayil
-
0
Dubai firm to cash in on growing demand for personal robots
  • Misa expected to be launched middle of next month for $399.
  • Device comes preloaded with $250 worth of ad-free games and hopes to sell 20,000 units in three months.
  • Working on a B2B robot targeting shopping malls, schools, hospitals and governments.

Dubai: Dubai-based Misa Robotics aims to cash in on the growing demand for personal robots at homes due to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), computer vision and natural language processing.

The company’s first robot – Misa – is expected to be launched globally by the middle of next month.

Deepak Bhatia, Founder and CEO of Misa Robotics and iLife Digital Technology, said that the product has been on Indiegogo for some months with an inaugural price of $349 compared to the regular price of $399.

He said that the early demand has been quite positive despite Covid-19 and have got 500 pre-orders without the product is ready.

“The Indiegogo campaign targeted the US and Canada customers. We were supposed to launch the product last month but we had to upgrade the wheel roller under the robot and that has delayed the launch,” he said.

However, he said the first product was delivered to a customer in Canada whose daughter is fighting the last stages of cancer. She has been following us even before we started our campaign and now, she has lost her vision.

“Her last wish was that she wants to welcome Misa before she leaves the world and she wrote us a letter. So, we made an exemption and gave her the old model. Some elderly people have also ordered the devices to set early reminders and some kids have ordered it for education and edutainment purposes,” he said.

Preloaded with $250 worth of games

The company got about 75 per cent of its pre-orders from consumers in the US and Canada.

“We got about four per cent from the Middle East and that was organic. We haven’t promoted it or marketed it in the region. We have got preorders from 45 countries,” he said.

Bhatia said that Misa has facial recognition and deep understanding and it can speak in English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Korean, Japanese and Mandarin.

“It has a voice AI and voice is the most difficult aspect of the project. It can move in the house through voice as well as through a smartphone app. With the app, users can do home automation, security, social interactions with the expression of emotions, or assistance robot for seniors and family,” he said.

The wakeup word is “Hey Misa” and it can recognise it in 100 different ascents.

The device comes preloaded with $250 worth of ad-free games, Karaoke app, books, learning apps and videos such as Little Miss, The Moomins, Mr Bean, Peter Rabbit and Mr Men.

Bhatia said that security and privacy issues are taken care of and it does not record any personal conversations as in Amazon Alexa. The app can be downloaded from Apple and Google Play stores.

The company has already selected distributors in some countries.

In the UAE, it is going to be Jumbo Electronics, certain high-end stores of LuLu and Carrefour and in talks with Virgin Megastore. It is going to be priced at AED1,499.

In Saudi Arabia, it is Extra; in Kuwait, it is Alghanim Industries, Eureka and Best Al Yousifi; in India, it will be with online retailers – Amazon and Flipkart.

“We spoke to some key online retailers in India and pricing is a challenge. The clientele is expected to be from the middle class to upwards. I do believe that Tier 1 cities have the budget.  It is expected to be priced between Rs26,000 and Rs30,000,” Bhatia said.

Working on a B2B robot

Personal robots are set to be an $18.85b opportunity by 2020 as the Asian market for robots will explode with China emerging as one of the major countries, according to research firm Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis.

“So far, home care robots dominate with regard to consumer adoption and integration into smart home management,” Jonathan Collins, Smart Home Research Director at ABI Research, said.

Bhatia said that they will be producing 20,000 robots for the next three months and in preparation for the festival season.

“We have already got orders for about 65 per cent of the production volume from retailers and distributors across the world. We have made a lot of tie-ups such as Wikipedia, news updates, games, flight bookings and Expedia for hotel bookings. The data is pulled from the partners and can recognise more than 500 skills.  We are in the process of adding iHeartRadio and waiting for the final approval.  Since it is working on the cloud, we can keep adding features and skills,” he said.

If everything goes as planned, he said that they can easily sell more than 100,000 units in 2021.

Moreover, he said that they are already working on a B2B robot targeting shopping malls, schools, hospitals and governments.

“We can provide customised software for different sectors with auto docking and facial recognition technologies.  It will at least take a year to develop a B2B robot,” he said.

Tactile Mobility sees growing demand for tactile-sensing technology

Naushad K. Cherrayil
-
0
Tactile Mobility sees growing demand for tactile-sensing technology
  • Startup’s business model is to monetise data to other players such as OEMs, municipalities, fleets, mapping companies and insurance companies.

Dubai: Israeli-based autotech startup Tactile Mobility expects more manufacturers to analyse data from car sensors and enable autonomous vehicles to get a feel of the road, using tactile data and artificial intelligence.

The startup has already signed deals with Porsche and BMW Group to integrate tactile technology into their smart cars.

Porsche is also a shareholder in Tactile Mobility.

It was co-founded in 2012 and has a presence in Europe, the US, and Asia. 

Eitan Grosbard, Vice-President for Business Development and Marketing at Tactile Mobility, told TechChannel News that they have been testing some of the cars on the road for some time but the mass production will start only next year.

“We are a software and data company. We are the first to offer sensing-based innovation in the automotive industry. The technology analyses the road surface attributes under the tyres, enabling accurate detection of road conditions and unprecedented vehicle dynamics management functions to enhance availability and performance,” he said.

Moreover, he said that they are working with four other global manufacturers.

Mapping of the pothole severity on roads.

The company started as an after-market device for fuel consumption in trucks but led the firm to reposition itself four years ago into the sensing technology due to change in oil and gas prices, Grosbard said.

How does it work?

The software is located in two areas – in the electronic control unit (ECU), an embedded system in automotive electronics that controls one or more of the electrical systems or subsystems in a vehicle and in the cloud.

It can collect raw data or signals from existing sensors in the vehicle such as wheels speeds, RPM, brake paddle positions. 

Utilising Tactile’s own proprietary algorithms, physical modelling and AI, they create a unified signal that represents three things – understand what is happening on the surface of the road (detect speed bumps, potholes, manholes), detect grip measurement (how good the vehicle is holding the surface)and slipperiness (ice, snow and water). 

With the software, they can understand what the state of the vehicle is and they create a digital twin of the vehicle such as chassis health, suspenders health and tyre wear. 

All the sensing is done in the vehicle, in real-time, and the startup collects a variety of data from different vehicles and creates a normalised ground truth in the cloud. 

The startup creates a tactile map of the road in the cloud and that map can be utilised by other vehicles coming behind.

Data monetisation

Today, Grosbard said that there aren’t similar technologies to theirs but there are other visual-related technologies such as cameras, Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) and Ladar (Laser Detection and Ranging) are methods for measuring distances by illuminating the target with laser light and measuring the reflection with a sensor.

The big difference, he said is that other technologies cannot distinguish what is a road and what is black ice, created by many cars driving on the snowy road.

“With our technology, it can detect the slipperiness of the road. In the future, he said that data from the cloud would be able to feed it to the suspensions of the vehicle and the passengers can drive without the bumpiness on the road,” he said    

The startup’s idea is to collect more data and part of the business model will be to monetise the data to other players such as other OEMs, municipalities, fleets, mapping companies, insurance companies, etc.

 “Today, autonomous cars are relying mainly on visual technologies and our technology will be incorporated into autonomous vehicles as well because this technology will complement the visual players. If you want 100 per cent reliability and safety, you cannot rely only on visual players,” he said.

More new jobs as online retailers go hiring ahead of festive sale

Ana Mary Joseph
-
0
More new jobs as online retailers go hiring ahead of festive sale
  • Amazon to add new infrastructure and ‘thousands’ of jobs across India. Hundred thousand more jobs in the US
  • Flipcart to add 70,000 direct jobs & 100,000 part time India

Bengaluru:  Online retailers in India are hiring in big numbers ahead of the festive season starting early October in India. 

Both Amazon and Flipcart announced that they are ramping up their facilities, recruiting more staff, and preparing for a busy season ahead, despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

The opening of two new Amazon fulfillment centres in Hyderabad in the southern Indian state of Telengana would result in thousands of new jobs, the company said.

The new addition will increase its storage capacity to more than 4.5 million cubic feet spread across four fulfillment centres in Telengana. 

Recently, Amazon announced that in an effort to strengthen the delivery speed, it is expanding the Sort Centres with five new ones, in Vishakhapatnam, Farukhnagar, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

It also announced that is also expanding eight existing Sort Centres to increase the overall sortation area to 2.2 million square feet, across 19 states. Amazon uses technology and automation in its sortation network. 

Flipkart meanwhile has announced that it plans to create about 70,000 new jobs (direct) and hundreds of thousands of seasonal jobs as it prepares for an increase in online shopping ahead of the festive season.

Flipcart runs its Big Billion Days sale and “its complexity and scale require investments for capacity, storage, sorting, packaging, human resources, training, and delivery,” it said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Amazon on Monday (Sept 14) announced that it plans to hire 100,000 new, regular full- and part-time jobs in the United States as it expands its operations.

A recent report by Unicommerce – a SaaS platform geared at eCommerce clients, online sales and business for e-commerce platforms has increased by about 130 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Covid deals major blow to GCC mobile phone demand in second quarter

Mohammed Fahad
-
0
Covid deals major blow to GCC mobile phone demand in second quarter
  • Covid deals major blow to GCC mobile phone demand in second quarter
  • Overall shipments fall 10.3% to 4.9m devices.
  • Smartphone shipments declined by 6.8% to 4.2m units while feature phones suffer 25.3% decline to 0.8m units.
  • Market is expected to fall by 1% in third quarter.

Dubai: Mobile phone shipments into the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) declined by 10.3 per cent quarter on quarter to 4.9 million units due to Covid-19.

Research firm International Data Corporation (IDC), said that smartphone shipments declined by 6.8 per cent to 4.2 million units while feature phones declines by 25.3 per cent to 0.8 million units.

The value of smartphone shipments was down 16.8 per cent quarter on quarter to $1.3 billion while the feature phone market’s value plunged 24 per cent to $15.4 million.

 “While supply shortages impacted the market’s performance in Q1 2020 and the early weeks of Q2 2020, a steep decline in consumer demand was the primary cause of the market’s decline,” says Akash Balachandran, a senior research analyst at IDC.

Moreover, he said that Covid-related lockdowns and measures resulted in physical retail closures for extended periods of time across the region, precipitating a major decline in demand.

Saudi Arabia accounted for 53.8 per cent of all smartphone units shipped within the GCC in the quarter. While there was a significant decline in demand across retail channels due to varying states of lockdown being implemented in Saudi Arabia, Balachandran said that shipments into the country were less affected.

 “Indeed, the planned implementation of a VAT increase in Saudi Arabia from July 1st caused channels to import larger quantities of smartphones before the change took place.”

Samsung maintains its lead

Samsung continued to lead the GCC smartphone market in the quarter, with 39.5 per cent unit share and 25.9 per cent value share as it was able to retain value and extend its unit share due to the fact that it was relatively less impacted by supply shortages than other brands and cushioned by a shorter refresh cycle (particularly in the low to mid-range price bands).

Apple saw reduced demand and shipments as consumers and the channel alike took a cautious approach to purchasing expensive high-end devices. Despite this, Apple accounted for 18.5 per cent unit share and a 50.8 per cent majority share of its value.

Xiaomi continued to post unit and value growth following the introduction of its new line of Note models in the previous quarter, accounting for 9.9% unit share and 5.7 per cent value share.

Looking ahead, IDC expects the GCC smartphone market to decline a further one per cent quarter on quarter in the third quarter of this year.

“Across the GCC region, the potential for a second wave of Covid cases, the return of lockdowns, stagnating oil prices and economies, and weakened consumer and commercial spending will push any real recovery toward the end of the year,” Ramazan Yavuz, a senior research manager at IDC, said.

While pent-up demand from consumers caused an immediate surge in smartphone sales after lockdowns were relaxed, he said the second half of the year is expected to perform slightly weaker as the region’s economies are not showing signs of recovery and consumer demand is weakening after the initial pent-up demand is met.

HMD Global aims to double its market share in enterprise space

Naushad K. Cherrayil
-
0
HMD Global aims to double its market share in enterprise space
  • Acquisition of assets of Valona Labs will turn HMD to focus on enterprises’ mobile security.
  • From a pure hardware player, HMD turns into hardware, software and services player.
  • 5G will play a very critical role in fueling demand for smartphones, HMD says.

Dubai: HMD Global, makers of Nokia brand of mobile phones, is aiming to double its market share in the enterprise space and turn into hardware, software and services player.

HMD acquired the assets of Finland-based Valona Labs, a mobile cybersecurity software company, in July.

Sanmeet Singh Kochhar, Vice-President for HMD Global Middle East, North Africa and India.

“With the acquisition, we have set up a new R&D centre of excellence in Finland. The deal will enhance the enterprises’ cybersecurity aspect and the overall experience and build our reputation as a leader in smartphone security and updates,” Sanmeet Singh Kochhar, Vice-President for HMD Global Middle East, North Africa and India, told TechChannel News.

The centre is exploring ways of delivering technologies such as remote device locking, enterprise mobility management, mobile device software security, secure network communication and black box testing.

In March, HMD launched HMD Connect, a SIM card that enables low-cost international roaming on smartphones in over 120 countries.

Given the current geopolitical situation, this is going to play a strong differentiation as “we move forward,” Kochhar said.

The Finnish startup, which will celebrate its fourth anniversary in December, promises two Android OS upgrades and three years of monthly security upgrades for its devices.

“We are the only European brand with a differentiated proposition. When everything is going digital, the security aspect is very important in the current scenario. We have been recognised by Counterpoint Research as the fastest brand in terms of software upgrades and having devices across different price points,” Kochhar said.

“Consumers are also important to us, but the enterprise segment is an important priority because of our proposition – security, reliability and trust – and due to the current geopolitical situation. We make sure that the data of our fans from their devices will be safe,” he said.

Most of HMD’s smartphones have been validated as part of the Android Enterprise Recommended programme, approved by Google to meet objective business standards, which includes an elevated set of specifications for hardware, software, deployment into company IT systems, security updates and user experience.

Differentiated proposition

The market has been very commoditised and is in the price and specs race, he said and added that they believe that they have a “differentiated proposition”.

“The competition is going to be there and there is room for every brand to grow and we have a strong reason to gain market share in the current geopolitical scenario due to the trust and reliability of our devices,” he said.

Industry experts said that the void created by Huawei in the smartphone space, outside of China, is expected to be filled by other smartphone manufacturers.

HMD is the number one in feature phones in value terms while iTEL is the number one in volume terms.

“We have gained market share in smartphones in different price points and different countries.  In the fourth quarter of 2019, we churned a profit and we are present in 180 countries and we have a direct presence in 80 countries,” Kochhar said.

Even in difficult times of Covid, he said that they have received $230 million funding from three of the giants in the technology world – Google, Qualcomm and Nokia.

5G phones in October

“This speaks volume in what HMD has achieved in the business.  We bring the best of the phone ecosystem with the three tech giants.  The funds will be used to expand in its priority markets such as Brazil, Africa and India and move more into areas such as software and services,” Kochhar said.

HMD has received its first funding of $100 million in 2018, led by Ginko Ventures via Alpha Ginko Ltd. with participation from DMJ Asia Investment Opportunity Limited and Wonderful Stars, a subsidiary of FIH Mobile Ltd.

HMD sold 70 million phones last year and claims to have sold more than 240 million to date. The company has five manufacturing locations around the world – India, Vietnam, Latin America, Indonesia and China.

Kochhar said that demand for smartphone and feature phones are very resilient and can come back very strongly and 5G will play a very critical role globally.

HMD is going to launch 5G phones in October.

“We want to accelerate the company’s mission of making 5G smartphones affordable globally and expand in priority markets,” he said.

Moreover, he said that the Nokia is one of the most loved brands globally due to its heritage and HMD Global is the one responsible for carrying ahead the legacy of the brand in the mobile phone industry.

According to social listening and analytics company Talkwalker’s new report on “Brand Love Story 2020”, HMD Global is ranked in the tenth place in the Middle East and Africa regional list.

India to add more AI jobs as market set to reach $11.4b by 2025

Mohammed Fahad
-
0
India to add more AI jobs as market set to reach $11.4b by 2025
  • The artificial intelligence market is valued at $6.4b with IT services sector leading the adoption followed by technology and BSFI sectors, new research says.
  • Technology and data continue to remain one of the main impediments faced by the industry in India followed by the ability to prove a return on investment, talent, culture and trust, regulation and ethics.

Bengaluru: The Artificial Intelligence sector in India would be valued at $6.8 billion by end of 2021 and reach $11.4 billion by 2025 even as the Covid-19 pandemic has marginally hindered the growth estimates. 

IT services sector will be a major player leading the adoption followed by technology and BSFI sectors. As per a new report by Analytics India Magazine (AIM), in association with Jigsaw Academy, Bengaluru leads the cities in terms of available open jobs for AI, although Mumbai leads in terms of remuneration and talent pool.

Another report by Nasscom and EY earlier this week points out that most CEO’s in India believe that operational efficiency, customer experience and revenue growth are the top three reasons for implementing AI, even as the ability to prove a return on investment, talent, culture and trust, regulation and ethics along with technology and data continue to remain as major impediments.

The report, based on a survey of over 500 CXOs across India to study the maturity of AI adoption along with key challenges, pointed out that most industry leaders believe that strategic planning and integrated governance act as key AI enablers. 

BFSI to lead

More than half of the surveyed expressed confidence and trust in AI to make strategic and/or operational decisions.

The survey also noted that from amongst the four key focus sectors, BFSI continues to lead the AI adoption followed by retail, healthcare and agriculture sectors.

As per the AIM report, the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance sector in India, which were some of the first to utilise data science services in an effort to derive insights on consumers, are continuing to use digital services to gain a competitive advantage.

The BFSI is next only to the core IT and technology sectors in terms of AI adoption and contributes to the tune of $615.3 million in market value and 9.6 per cent in market share. 

IT services industry or sector has the highest share of the AI market at 41.4 per cent and $2625 million in market value with TCS and Accenture being the largest contributors of market share in this industry category.

The report also added that the Indian AI market has moved on from being a back-office service provider to global companies to driving key R&D initiatives of AI platforms and technologies across several sectors and enterprises.

“By investing in AI technologies, platforms and services, NITI Aayog, Nasscom, Educational Institutions, the Indian IT firms, and various Technology & Engineering enterprises are transforming India into a hub of AI research and development,” the report noted.

Although the number of job openings within the sector dropped marginally during the past three months due to Covid-19, the number of openings are expected to pick up in 2021.  

Bangalore leads the list of cities with the number of open jobs in AI though Mumbai continues to pay higher salaries of its experienced professionals even as the country is experiencing severe skill shortages.

Currently, there are about 91000 AI personnel working, earning anywhere between Rs600,000  to 1.5 million per annum.

1...247248249...270Page 248 of 270