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Dubai based GovTech startup raises six-figure seed round

TCN Bureau
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Dubai based GovTech startup raises six-figure seed round
  • 01Gov to empower public sector across the Arab world to be future-ready.
  • Saeed Khalfan Aldhaheri, an entrepreneur and innovation expert, is the angel investor in this round.

Dubai: Dubai-based GovTech startup – 01Gov – has raised six-figure seed investment to help the public sector make the shift into the digital era and design the governments of the 21st century.

Saeed Khalfan Aldhaheri, an entrepreneur and innovation expert, is the angel investor in this round.

“We are proud and grateful to close our seed round investment, a key milestone in our exciting journey towards the future,” Ibrahim Ahmed Elbadawi, Founder and CEO of 01Gov, said.

Hybrid business model

The company has been incessantly offering a range of products and services, to inspire the public sector leaders and employees and provide them with the needed skills, attitudes, knowledge and tools.

Being the first Arab platform for government innovation, 01Gov offers a daily updated open content in Arabic under the theme of “Government of the Future” within a variety of domains such as data, innovation culture, artificial intelligence, future foresight and storytelling to name a few.

 “Only one Arab country has managed to secure a spot within the top 50 countries on the 2019 Global Innovation Index,” Elbadawi said.

“While many Arab states have announced bold and futuristic national visions, turning those visions into reality requires a digital, agile, and innovative public sector that belongs to the 21st century,” he added.

Elbadawi asserted the company’s aim is to accelerate its growth and further scaling its well tested hybrid business model which combines the power and scalability of the digital platform with the depth and warmth of the human face to face conversations that take place in training rooms and innovation labs.

Aldhaheri said that Ibrahim and his team have succeeded in empowering the leaders of the public sector in the UAE and the region with a new perspective to approach and tackle the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.

The importance of robotics and tech innovation post Covid-19

Mohammed Fahad
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The importance of robotics and tech innovation post Covid-19
  • Five trends that are shaping post-pandemic future are infection prevention, remote commerce, improving resiliency, greater agility and macroeconomic impacts.
  • Digital transformation will rapidly accelerate the adoption of emerging technologies like telemedicine.
  • Autonomous vehicles will experience a long-term positive impact due to social distancing preferences but near-term are delayed due to disruption of development and pilots.

Bengaluru: Given the scale of the disruption to business from Covid-19, there will be no going back to the old “normal.”

Companies need to prepare for a post-pandemic reality that will look very different and take a systematic approach to doing so.

Five trends will define how the world beyond the crisis will be different – and provide a framework to use in assessing tech and industry impacts.

Innovation leaders should be moving now to position their companies for the “new normal.” Take advantage of the opportunity to engage on favorable terms with innovative companies now.

 Michael Holman, Vice-President of Research at Lux Research, said, the five trends are infection prevention, remote commerce, improving resiliency, greater agility and macroeconomic impacts.

Systematic approach

According to Lux Research, each of these trends can have a positive or negative influence on an emerging technology.

 “The methodology focuses on three primary parts -identifying the major trends shaping the future after the pandemic, assessing the impact on technology, and prioritising the actions that need to be taken based on trends and tech impacts,” he said.

“While things are changing too rapidly to have 100% certainty, this methodology helps executives take a systematic approach to rebalancing their portfolio,” he said.

He predicts that increased agility and resilience will drive long-term positive change for materials innovation.

Improving resiliency

“Materials informatics will also see a medium-term positive impact due to increased efficiency and agility in R&D. We expect a positive effect on plastic waste recycling and synthetic biology, as more people are gravitating to single-use plastics to stay safe, and synbio can allow more agile and flexible production,” Holman said.

Kevin See, Vice-President of Research at Lux research, said that digital transformation will rapidly accelerate the adoption of emerging technologies like telemedicine, due to a dramatic increase in remote commerce and the need for infection prevention.

Wearables will also see a positive near-term lift, he said, as they aid in infection prevention and reopening efforts.

“There will be an upward trend in robotics due to the need for infection prevention and improving resiliency. Covid-19 will push major manufacturing and logistics operations to assess the potential of robotics moving forward,” See said.

Moreover, he said that the agrifood and health ecosystems will see positive growth in omics, which are a powerful suite of technologies for fighting Covid-19.

“In food, ingredient informatics and plant-based proteins will benefit, as they allow for increased resilience and agility in the food value chain,” he said.

The future of the mobility industry is more varied, he said and added that autonomous vehicles will experience a long-term positive impact due to social distancing preferences but near-term are delayed due to disruption of development and pilots.

“Shared mobility is a mixed bag, as ride-hailing is severely negatively affected in the near term, while micromobility solutions provide an alternative that better suits social distancing measures. The long-term consequences for electric vehicles will be minimal, as adoption will continue to be driven by regulations that for now have not drastically changed,” he said.

Holman said that innovation leaders can identify the trajectory of technologies, by using this framework; they are either invested in or considering investing in, and the implications for their industry.

“Some technology outlooks will see persistent effects from Covid-19, while others will experience a more dynamic shock that changes over time,” he said.

Global smartwatch revenue up 20% in first half amid Covid-19

Naushad K. Cherrayil
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Global smartwatch revenue up 20% in first half amid Covid-19
  • Wearables continue to see greater demand with consumers becoming more health conscious.
  • India (+57% YoY), Europe (+9% YoY) and the US (+5% YoY), the most affected regions of Covid-19, saw a healthy growth in shipments which offset decline in other markets.

Dubai: Revenues from the smartwatch market increased 20% per cent year on year despite the Covid-19 pandemic and with shipments remaining flat.

About 42 million smartwatches were shipped globally in the first half of this year as wearables continue to see greater demand with consumers becoming more health conscious.

Counterpoint Research said that the top three brands – Apple, Garmin and Huawei – contributed more than 69% of the total market revenue in the first half of the year.

Sujeong Lim, Senior IoT Analyst at Counterpoint Research, said that the smartwatch space remains a popular consumer device segment, compared to the downturn seen in smartphone demand and many other segments in the first six months of 2020 due to the devastation caused by Covid-19.

India (+57% YoY), Europe (+9% YoY) and the US (+5% YoY), the most affected regions of Covid-19, saw a healthy growth in smartwatch shipments which offset the decline in other markets.

Among the brands, Apple captured a record half of the market in terms of revenue due to strong demand for the Apple Watch S5 models. Apple Watch grew 22% globally with Europe and North America being the fastest growing markets in the first half of 2020.

Garmin, the second-largest brand in terms of revenue globally, continued to make strides cornering the sports enthusiast and athlete market. The brand saw healthy demand (+31% YoY) for its Forerunner and Fenix line, making up one of the broadest portfolios of smartwatches in the market. Europe and North America remain the key markets for Garmin.

Brands’ growth story

Neil Shah, Vice-President for Research at Counterpoint Research, said that Huawei saw healthy volumes (+57% YoY), jumping to the second spot globally in the first half of 2020.

“Huawei benefitted from significant demand for its smartwatches, especially the Watch GT2 series in its home market China and Asian markets, with shipment volumes growing 90% in both the regions,” he said.

Moreover, he said that Amazfit (+51% YoY) and Xiaomi (+47% YoY) made healthy strides during the first half with expanding portfolios and better geographic reach.

“China, India and the rest of Asia remain central to these brands’ growth story. Samsung faced some headwinds during the first half, but the launch of Galaxy Watch 3 in the second half could drum up some demand for the Korean vendor. Fitbit, Ticwatch and Suunto faced some tough competition from Garmin and Apple during the first half and will thus look forward to ramping up initiatives to ignite the demand during the holiday season,” he said.

Jeff Fieldhack, Research Director at Counterpoint Research, said that Google WearOS accounted for 10% of the total smartwatch market, behind Apple WatchOS.

“Huawei’s Lite OS and Amazfit’s Amazfit OS are growing fast. Further, the cellular-capable smartwatch is becoming more popular and accounts for more than one in four smartwatches shipped, benefitting the likes of Qualcomm,” he said.

Square form-factor in demand

The research shows that heart-rate monitoring is now featured in almost 60% of the smartwatches while square form-factor accounted for almost two-thirds of the smartwatches globally.

“Fall detection and SPO2 are the features that should see mass-adoption in future models. The massive leaps in battery life and processing power are helping to better track overall health as continual heartrate, sleep and other monitoring can be done instead of the device sitting on a charger. The leaps in solar charging technology will also help OEMs concentrate on better monitoring. We expect to continue to see a focus on fitness and wellness applications,” Fieldhack said.

Reverie translates “MyGov Covid-19” page in 10 different languages

TCN Bureau
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Reverie translates “MyGov Covid-19” page in 10 different languages
  • Company aims to reach out to more than 90% of Indian internet users that do not prefer English.

Bengaluru: Reverie Language Technologies, an Indian language localisation service platform, has translated “MyGov Covid-19” page in 10 different languages.

The company is aiming to reach out to more than 90% of Indian internet users that do not prefer English.

 “As we emphasise on #VocalForLocal, it is imperative that businesses and governments are empowered with the right tools to reach out to all of India,” Arvind Pani, CEO and Co-founder at Reverie Language Technologies, said.

Although mass media channels like newspapers, TV, radio, etc., have understood this language demand much early in the game and have been catering to the local-language audience, the internet has been slow to catch up in the language arena.

The increasing smartphone penetration in India among the rural populace and those in non-metro areas, coupled with cost-effective mobile data prices, also cements the fact that more Indians are looking to go digital.

“Ideally, we are now at a stage where there is a rapidly growing demand for Indian-language content online,” Pani said.

In order to achieve that, Reverie has created a wide range of technologies for both text and speech, including machine translation, speech-to-text , text-to-speech, search and discovery to name a few. Reverie leverages technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to solve the computing challenges of Indian languages, which are incredibly complex.

Zoom to be available on Google Nest, Amazon Echo and Facebook Portal smart displays

TCN Bureau
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Zoom to be available on Google Nest, Amazon Echo and Facebook Portal smart displays
  • Zoom on Portal to available in September.
  • Zoom on Amazon Echo Show and Zoom on Google Nest Hub Max to be available by year-end.

Bengaluru: Zoom Video Communications is adding its video communication capabilities to smart displays such as Amazon Echo Show, Portal from Facebook, and Google Nest Hub Max to take advantage of the work-from-home environment.

Zoom on Portal is expected to be available publicly in September; Zoom on Echo Show and Zoom on Assistant-enabled Smart Displays, including Google Nest Hub Max are expected to be available by the end of the year.

As a part of Zoom for Home, Zoom Meeting users will be able to extend integrated calendar and HD video and audio for Zoom Meetings.

Oded Gal, Chief Product Officer at Zoom, said that it’s more apparent than ever that people are looking for easy-to-use displays for their video communications needs, both professionally and personally.

Video-conferencing apps have seen major surge in usage due to more people working from home as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Zoom’s mobile app had 173 million monthly active users in May, up from a mere 14 million in March.

Immersive calling experience

“Together, Portal and Zoom create an immersive calling experience that can go from powering your workday to connecting you with family and friends, with one dedicated device,” said Micah Collins, Director of Portal Product Management at Facebook.

Facebook’s Portal devices will be adding a Zoom app (along with new apps for BlueJeans, GoToMeeting, and Webex), and will rely on Facebook’s “smart camera” technology to keep you in the frame, just like it does for Facebook’s own Messenger and WhatsApp calls.

Zoom on Portal will be available on Portal Mini, Portal and Portal+ with support for Portal TV in the future.

“Portal’s big screen frees up your laptop so you can stay productive, while the AI-powered Smart Camera makes work and personal communication effortless by always keeping you in the frame,” Collins said.

Alexa customers will soon be able to join Zoom video conferences from select Echo Show devices in the US later this year, beginning with Echo Show 8.

“It’s more important than ever to offer features like these to help people stay connected with their friends, family, and co-workers,” said Brian Oliver, Director of Alexa Communication.

Zoom on Google Nest Hub Max will be fully integrated with Google Calendar and Google Assistant, customers will be able to enjoy hands-free controls with commands.  “One of the most popular ways people use Assistant-enabled smart displays is for video calling, and we want people to be able to use the video calling service of their choice to keep in touch with friends and family,” said Lilian Rincon, Senior Director of Product Management, Google Assistant.

Panasonic to sell consumer electronics products on Amazon UAE soon

Mohammed Fahad
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Panasonic to sell consumer electronics products on Amazon UAE soon
  • Al-Futtaim Panatech will be the sole distributor for Panasonic products in UAE.
  • Japanese giant focusing on boosting online sales as consumer’s purchasing patterns have changed.

Dubai: Panasonic Middle East is going to sell its entire range of consumer electronics products on e-commerce giant Amazon UAE soon.

“The deal is almost finalised and a public announcement will be made within days,” sources close to the matter told Tech Channel News.

Al-Futtaim Panatech is the sole distributor for Panasonic products in the UAE and that will remain intact.

“Consumer habits have changed during the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown scenarios have inevitably changed the way people look at retail experiences, giving a boost to online sales tremendously and it is expected to continue,” the source said.

Retailers in the UAE saw a sudden spike in online sales during the first three months of the lockdown and industry experts said that online sales are expected to decline slightly as brick-and-mortar stores are opened.

“Panasonic is focusing on boosting online sales as consumer’s purchasing patterns have changed but Al-Futtaim Panatech’s sales will not be impacted as the prices are expected to be fixed by them and they will be supplying products to Amazon UAE,” the source said.

According to a recent survey by McKinsey & Company’s on UAE’s consumer sentiment, most consumers are not yet fully comfortable going back to regular out-of-home activities and are waiting for milestones beyond government lifting restrictions to return to regular activities.

At the same time, the survey showed that people have started adopting digital and low-touch activities and grocery delivery, with a high intent to continue some behaviours after the crisis for many categories.

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