200 Million Smart Home Safety and Security Devices by 2020

ELECTRONICS.CA PUBLICATIONS announces the availability of a new report entitled “Smart Home Safety & Security – A Market Dynamics Report”.  According to this report, competition is intensifying for smart home service providers. This market research report covers the global IP security/smart home market as well as smart home safety and security products and services in the managed services, retail and professional installer channels. 

“Cloud-based open platforms are disrupting and creating new opportunities for smart home services,” said Mareca Hatler ON World’s research director. “Consumers are demanding greater choices as well as lower costs and smart home service providers are responding through strategic alliances and open source initiatives.”

ON World’s recently completed survey with 1,000 U.S. adults found that 30% are likely to adopt a smart home system within three years. Over half would like to have at least two integrated smart home applications and 60% of these would like three or more integrated applications. For half the respondents, safety and security is the primary reason they would adopt a smart home system.

Consumers are most satisfied with smart garage door openers, motion sensors and door locks, according to ON World’s evaluation of 170 smart home safety and security products with 20,000 product reviews. Some of the fastest growing product segments include video doorbells, smart smoke detectors and multi-purpose motion sensors.

Open source initiatives such as the AllSeen Alliance, OIC and mozaiq operations aim to accelerate smart home IoT product development and ensure interoperability across applications and transport layers. The AllSeen Alliance has grown rapidly over the past two years with over 100 members including smart home software, hardware and platform market leaders and innovators such as AT&T, Cisco, D-Link, Icontrol Networks, Legrand, LG, Honeywell, Iris by Lowe’s, Microsoft, Muzzley and Technicolor.

By 2020, there will be 200 million Internet connected wireless smart home security and safety products installed worldwide. At this time, 53% will be sold through managed services providers down from three quarters this year as sales through the retail/DIY channel will increase faster.

“Smart Home Safety & Security – A Market Dynamics Report” covers the global IP security/smart home market including safety, security, HVAC/energy, lighting controls and others as well as 12 smart home safety and security product segments for the managed services, retail/DIY and professional installer channels. It includes the results from a survey with 1,000 U.S. consumers; an evaluation of 170 products and 20,000 reviews; a competitive analysis; and 6-year global forecasts for installed systems and devices, revenues for equipment, software and services, and annual unit shipments by market, product segment and technology.

Smart Home Safety & Security – A Market Dynamics Report

Details of the new report, table of contents and ordering information can be found on Electronics.ca Publications’ web site.  View Report Contents: “Smart Home Safety & Security – A Market Dynamics Report”.

200 Million Smart Home Safety and Security Devices by 2020

Global Printed Circuit Boards Market Data 2015

Electronics.ca Publications unearths interesting findings that may reveal golden opportunities for electronics manufacturers. Here are some of the latest discoveries of interest to PCB fabricators:

According to “Monthly IPC North American PCB Market Report” Flexible circuit orders in North America are booming this year and the forecast for the next year is for double-digit sales growth. The North American flex market has grown over the past 3 years while the rigid PCB market has shrunk. Globally, the flex market is now estimated at over $10.2 billion. Yet, U.S. production accounts for only 3.4 percent of the world’s flexible circuits.

The monthly North American PCB Market Report provides timely data on PCB market size, sales and order growth, book-to-bill ratios and near-term forecasts. Data are reported for rigid PCBs and flexible circuits separately. The rigid PCB data are further segmented by company size tiers, and flex data includes trends in bare circuit versus assembly revenue sources. Trends in sales of boards to the military and medical markets are reported for both rigid and flex, as well as trends in prototype sales.

According to Global and China FPCB (Flexible Printed Circuit Board) Industry Report, 2014 was a bumper year for most FPCB companies, and the output value of the entire PCB industry reached USD12.5 billion, rising by 10.5% from the previous year. In 2015, the prices of bulk commodities (particularly the copper price) plummet, which will greatly reduce the raw material costs of PCB companies and help raise their profitability. Larger screen size of mobile phone requires larger FPCB. The FPCB market is expected to grow 8.6% in 2015 as the smartphone market can not continue its rapid growth and the tablet PC is in recession.

In 2014, the euro, the NTD and the yen significantly devalued, while the South Korean won appreciated, which not only hit a serious blow to the competitiveness of South Korean FPCB enterprises, but minified the profit of South Korean PCB enterprises. The revenue and profit margin of all South Korean PCB companies declined, for example, Flexcom’s revenue slumped by more than 50%, the giant Interflex’s revenue dropped 33% and its operating margin turned to be the negative 14.2%, which showed the power of the currency war.

Benefiting from the currency depreciation, Taiwanese and European companies witnessed soaring profit margins. More than half of Japanese companies did not benefit from the depreciation of the yen because they set up production bases overseas, but still better than South Korean companies.

In the downstream market, the biggest change in 2014 lied in: HDD saw the first growth after three consecutive years of decline. The global HDD shipment amounted to 564 million units, an increase of 2.4% from 2013. Previously, insiders were optimistic about the prospect of SSD instead of HDD; but actually, the SSD price remained high, the tablet PC market decayed, while the laptop computer market recovered to growth after three consecutive years of downturn. At the same time, the development of SSD did not restrict HDD; the new network economy and the big data era stimulated the demand for servers and HDD. HDD will still be the mainstream in the next three to five years, and the HDD shipment is expected to reach 621 million units in 2019. Japanese companies focusing on HDD-use FPCB performed exceedingly well in 2014, for example, the leader NOK (Mektron) achieved the revenue growth rate of 28% and the operating margin of 8.7% (rising from the negative 10.6%), Nitto’s revenue surged by 31%.

The competitiveness of South Korean and American companies weakened significantly. The strong USD made MFLEX’s revenue fall dramatically. The depreciation of NTD facilitated Taiwanese companies to grow by leaps and bounds; meanwhile, Apple greatly reduced orders from South Korean companies, while placed more orders with Japanese and Taiwanese companies in accordance with the principle of the nearest supply. The revenue of ZDT under Foxconn soared 60% in 2014.

 

Global Printed Circuit Boards Market Data 2015

What Benefit Do IPC Standards Have For The Electronic Hardware Supply Chain?

For more than 50 years, IPC has developed industry standards for the production of electronic hardware. After having been long considered North American standards, IPC standards over the past two decades have spread globally. The question now is: what benefit do IPC standards have for the electronic hardware supply chain?

Providing answers to that question, several companies in Europe representing electronic design, CAD, bare board production, assembly and soldering explain how they use IPC standards in their daily business routines.

This first article covers electronic design/CAD company, GED GmbH, located 30 km southeast of Cologne in Germany.

First experience with IPC standards

GED offers PCB design and engineering and, through the assistance of external subcontractors, bare board, assembly and test services. Currently the company has 14 employees and CAD systems from six different layout vendors. With these resources, the company produces 160 new PCBs and 80 updates per year for rigid, flex, flex-rigid and HDI boards for customers in Germany, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, France and the Czech Republic.

From its establishment in 1986 to the middle of the 1990s, the company used its customers’ internal standards from companies such as Siemens, Philips, Rheinmetall and Thyssen. This meant that a different standard was used for every customer. An example of this frustrating situation, says Hanno Platz, owner and managing director, “was when we received an inquiry from Hewlett Packard in Germany with an attachment of 100 pages of requirements for the PCB in question.” At that time, the staff did not know about IPC and its standards. In 1995, the company had a U.S. customer that demanded that the assembly and soldering of a back plane, developed and produced in Germany, be conducted at their U.S. premises according to IPC-A-610, Acceptability of Electronic Assemblies, Class 3 acceptance criteria.

Technology focused on standards

GED found IPC standards through FED, a local German organization with a long-time relationship with IPC, and bought first set of IPC standards. The back plane could now be designed and produced according to IPC standards. Having standards from different areas of the production chain that linked together was a new and positive experience for the company. The staff now regularly discusses how to use IPC standards in their own designs as well as in the purchasing process of bare boards plus assembling and soldering.

Currently, all employees have passed CID (Certified Interconnect Designer) and CID+ (Advanced Certified Interconnect Designer) and are familiar with nearly all IPC standards for electronic design and CAD. All of their order acknowledgments for designing a complete PCB include the following statement, “If nothing else has been agreed upon, PCBs will be manufactured according to IPC standards and its Class 2 acceptance criteria.”

At GED, designers also create PCB layouts. Today, most new PCBs are HDI (high density interconnected) with a high SI (signal integrity) level including high EMC (electromagnetic compatibility). IPC standards have an important influence on these complex boards. The company uses the following IPC standards in their design work:

• The IPC-2220 PCB design series for mechanical properties of track, isolation and PTH (plated-through holes)


• IPC-2223B, Sectional Design Standard for Flexible Printed Boards for flex-rigid PCBs and questions like adhesive type, placement of a flex layer into the rigid part and coverlay dimensions


• IPC-7351A, Generic Requirements for Surface Mount Design and Land Pattern Standard for footprint (land) design, which is even more important than before because of lead-free processes, especially when components like CSPs (chip scale packages) and QFNs (quad flat no leads) are specified in the BOM list.


• IPC-A-610F, Acceptability of Electronic Assemblies for acceptability of solder joints and assemblies


• IPC-2251, Design Guide for the Packaging of High Speed Electronic Circuits and IPC-2141A, Design Guide for High-Speed Controlled Impedance Circuit Boards.With the need to comply with EU Directive 2004/108/EC, and its requirements for high EMC on all PCBs placed in the EU market, SI has become more critical. These standards assist GED designers in selecting microstrip or stripline build up for impedance.

Tool with benefit

The company’s ISO 9002 certification states that Deutsches Institut für Normung e.V. (DIN) and IPC standards serve as the foundation for quality work. IPC standards are required as a tool when the company uses external vendors for bare boards and assembly. For all potential suppliers in Europe, the staff conducts company visits that include an audit of the bare board supplier and their use of IPC standards, especially the IPC-6010 board manufacturing series and IPC-A-600H, Acceptability of Printed Boards. According to Platz, “After visiting hundreds of bare board suppliers, we’ve concluded that the majority of suppliers understand IPC standards but very few can make boards according to IPC Class 3 acceptance criteria. This is absolutely something that needs to improve.”

According to GED, IPC standards are the basis of electronic product quality and reliability. In the design process, technical parameters like choice of base material, pad sizes, spaces/traces and isolation distances between layer and component pitches are constant considerations. The use of IPC standards makes it much easier to find solutions. Without IPC standards, the alternative can involve high repair/touch up costs and lots of scrap but also an imperfect electronic product from a quality and reliability point of view. In some cases, this has been a very costly experience for the company’s customers that have not used IPC standards. Platz gives two examples:

Example 1: Working to improve EMC capabilities on a PCB, a designer placed via holes directly in surface mount pads. The result was years of solder and wetting problems with only an 80 to 90 percent yield and difficult repairs. The designer, by not following the standard, placed vias in a pad that was too tight. The profit loss over several years was estimated to be 50,000 to 60,000 Euros. The company was ultimately able to solve the problem by redesigning via hole placement that improved EMC properties.

Example 2: A complex 12-layer HDI board with BGA components on both sides needed to be manufactured using a lead-free process. After the transfer, yield went down to 50 percent. The reason: wrong design parameters and bad layer configurations were used and pads too small for via holes were created. With a higher lead-free solder temperature, many irreparable barrel cracks were created in via holes. The total loss due to the 50% yield in the lead-free process was more than 100,000 Euros.

For GED, IPC standards have been an invaluable tool over the past two decades. IPC standards not only save money, they also make it easier to communicate with bare board suppliers and assembly companies across the world. IPC standards can significantly reduce mistakes and improve end-product quality and reliability.

What Benefit Do IPC Standards Have For The Electronic Hardware Supply Chain?

ZigBee Standards Will Be Used in Over 80% of 802.15.4 Chipset Shipments in 2020

ELECTRONICS.CA PUBLICATIONS, the electronics industry market research and knowledge network, announces the availability of a new report entitled “ZigBee Lights Up the Internet of Things: A Market Dynamics Report“.  New research finds that annual shipments of IEEE 802.15.4 chipsets nearly doubled last year and will increase by 550% over the next five years. In 2020, ZigBee standards will be used in 8 out of 10 of the 802.15.4 chipset shipments.

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“ZigBee has always provided flexibility for developers and now ZigBee is rapidly becoming the consumer technology of choice for emerging smart home products,” says Mareca Hatler, ON World’s research director. “This trend is expected to accelerate as ZigBee 3.0 unifies its application profiles and the Thread Group provides a standards based IP addressable wireless mesh network layer.”

Annual unit shipments for ZigBee/802.15.4 nearly doubled last year and will increase by 550% over the next five years. In addition to ZigBee PRO, the most widely adopted wireless mesh network protocol, the ZigBee Alliance also certifies ZigBee RF4CE devices for simple, ultra-low power remote controls and the ZigBee Alliance is also working on a new specification for outdoor wireless mesh networking using IEEE 802.15.4g and 6LoWPAN.

The Thread specification that is scheduled to be released this July will simplify and streamline the creation of smart home IoT products and services. Through a collaboration with the ZigBee Alliance, the Thread Group benefits from over a decade of development of application profiles and ZigBee 3.0 in particular. ZigBee 3.0 is scheduled to be completed this year and will unify commonly used ZigBee profiles such as ZigBee Light Link, ZigBee Home Automation, ZigBee Health Care and others into a single application profile suite, significantly streamlining product development and interoperability among vendors.

Applications for the IoT continue to expand with a growing number of IoT cloud providers such as Ayla Networks, Arrayent, GreenWave Systems, Helium, Kitu Systems, SmartThings (Samsung) and Wink (Quirky) that have recently raised $500 million in venture or equity investments.

By 2020, this new study projects that over 80% of IEEE 802.15.4 annual shipments will use a ZigBee standard. However, ZigBee is facing intensifying competition from low power variants of WiFi and Bluetooth Smart that are gaining tremendous momentum currently from the mobile, IT and consumer electronics industries. Within the next five years, the study projects that annual wireless sensor network chipset shipments will exceed 2 billion.

This report analyzes the evolving market forces, technology advances and competitive dynamics for 22 unique ZigBee markets and provides 5-year forecasts for 802.15.4/ZigBee and competing alternatives including WiFi, Bluetooth, Z-Wave, EnOcean and others. It also includes key findings from a recently completed survey with 1,000+ consumers and an extensive analysis of hundreds of ZigBee/802.15.4 products and services.

ZigBee Lights Up the Internet of Things

Details of the new report, table of contents and ordering information can be found on Electronics.ca Publications’ web site.  View the report: “ZigBee Lights Up the Internet of Things: A Market Dynamics Report“.

 

ZigBee Standards Will Be Used in Over 80% of 802.15.4 Chipset Shipments in 2020

2016 Vertical Markets for IoT Connector Products

ELECTRONICS.CA PUBLICATIONS announces the availability of a new five chapter, 162 page research report analyzing the impact the Internet of Things (IoT) will have on the connector market. This first volume, which focuses on the consumer, computer and telecom market sectors, provides a look at the applications and connectors used in these applications that will most be influenced by the growth of the IoT.

Some think that the Internet of Things (IoT) term was coined rather recently, but it was used as early as 2009 by Kevin Ashton to describe the new idea of linking RFID in Proctor & Gamble’s supply chain to the Internet. He used it to describe his vision of computers keeping track of and counting everything, as opposed to people feeding this information into computers by typing, pressing a record button, taking a digital picture or scanning a bar code. Ashton’s vision is this: “If we had computers that knew everything there was to know about things—using data they gathered without any help from us—we would be able to track and count everything, and greatly reduce waste, loss and cost. We would know when things needed replacing, repairing or recalling, and whether they were fresh or past their best. We need to empower computers with their own means of gathering information, so they can see, hear and smell the world for themselves, in all its random glory. RFID and sensor technology enable computers to observe, identify and understand the world—without the limitations of human-entered data.”

While the IoT is not quite at the level that Ashton envisioned yet, it is well on its way with a plethora of “things” being tracked. These “things” range from a Fitbit you wear on your wrist to track your health and fitness to tracking farmers’ tractors and everything in between. These “things” are pervasive in our everyday lives now and new ones are being invented at increasing rates.

The goal of this report is to explain the different IoT vertical markets and technologies and to detail the effects these may have on the connector industry. Chapter 2 of the report covers definitions that will be used throughout the report, and Chapter 3 highlights the wireless technologies and trends in the IoT market specific to telecommunications, computer and consumer devices. Detailed in Chapter 4 are IoT devices and applications and the specific connector products that are affected by them. In Chapter 5, five-year forecasts for these connectors segmented by region, market segment and Bishop’s traditional connector categories are provided. In addition, included are forecasts for specific connector product types that are poised for growth due to IoT applications. These include modular jacks used in networking applications; board-mount high-speed I/O; USB; micro-coax for smartphones; FPC/FFC used in portable devices; and HDMI used in HDTVs and displays.

The total market for IoT connector products sold into computer, consumer and telecom applications reached more than $14.5 billion in 2015 and is anticipated to grow significantly by 2020, resulting in substantial increases in a number of key connector products.

Details of the new report, table of contents and ordering information can be found on Electronics.ca Publications’ web site. View Report Contents: The Internet of Things Impact on the Connector Industry.

2016 Vertical Markets for IoT Connector Products

Internet of Things Solutions, Business Opportunities, and IoT Forecasts 2015-2020

IoT Solutions, Business Opportunities and New Markets

The Internet of Things (IoT) is poised to fundamentally transform M2M communications, global IT support systems, and business processes in virtually every industry vertical. IoT will significantly impact wireless (short range and macro networks), network signaling, authentication, and data management systems. Embedded systems will also be at the cornerstone for IoT deployment, especially within Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications. Data generated through sensors embedded in various things/objects will generate massive amounts of unstructured (big) data on real-time basis that holds the promise for intelligence and insights

for dramatically improved decision processes.

Accordingly, there is an emerging significant business opportunity for Cloud Service Providers and Big Data Analytics within IoT.  There is an increasingly urgent need for end-to-end security for IoT systems and services as we anticipate that their intrusions will become increasingly impactful leading to the potential for operational disruption, industrial espionage, damage to enterprise assets, and even potential physical harm to human beings.

This research offering is the most comprehensive available covering business drivers, technologies, leading companies and solutions, applications, services, market segments, and future outlook for IoT.

Forecasts are provided for 2015 to 2020 for major IoT focus areas including:

* Big Data in IoT

* Security in IoT

* Smart Cities and IoT

* IoT and Data as a Service

* IoT and Embedded Systems

* IoT and the Industrial Internet

This research bundle is value-priced as the sum total of each report purchased individually would be significantly more expensive. This report bundle purchase includes time with an expert analyst who will help you link key findings in the report to the business issues you’re addressing. This needs to be used within three months of purchasing the report.

Target Audience:

* Security companies

* Internet of Things companies

* Wireless device manufacturers

* Wearable technology suppliers

* Digital signal processor providers

* Telephony infrastructure providers

* Computer and semiconductor companies

* Embedded hardware, software and OS providers

* Mobile/wireless network operators and service providers

* Next generation application developers and content providers

* Consumer electronics merchandisers and application providers

Table of Contents:


This research package includes the following reports:

1. Data as a Service (DaaS) Market and Forecasts 2015 – 2020


2. Wireless IoT Wide Area Network (WAN) Technologies and Solutions


3. M2M, IoT, Sensors, and Connected World: Market and Forecast 2015 – 2020


4. Connected Home and IoT: Market Opportunities and Forecasts 2015 – 2020


5. M2M/IoT, Cloud, Big Data and Analytics: Market Dynamics and Opportunities


6. Connected Vehicles: Market and Forecast for LTE and Telematics Applications 2015 – 2020


7. Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT): Key Trends, Opportunities and Market Forecasts 2015 – 2020


8. Big Data in Internet of  Things (IoT): Key Trends, Opportunities and Market Forecasts 2015 – 2020


9. The IoT Software Market and OEM Ecosystem: Opportunities, Challenges, and Forecast 2015 – 2020


10. The IoT Hardware Market and OEM Ecosystem: Opportunities, Challenges, and Forecast 2015 – 2020


11. Internet of Things (IoT) and  Wireless Networks: Technologies, Business Drivers, and Market Outlook


12. Security and Privacy in the Internet of Things (IoT): Challenges, Market Opportunities and Forecast  2015 – 2020


13. Smart City Business Drivers,  Technologies, Companies, and Solutions: Global Outlook and Forecasts 2015 – 2020


14.  Internet of  Things (IoT) Leaders: ARM, Broadcom, Cisco, Freescale, Google, Intel, McAfee, Oracle, PTC, Qualcomm, Samsung


15. Embedded Infrastructure and Devices in the Internet of Things (IoT) Ecosystem: Next Generation Embedded System Hardware, Software, Tools, and OSs 2015 – 2020

Internet of Things Solutions, Business Opportunities, and IoT Forecasts 2015 – 2020

Published in December 2015

1,860 pages.

Single-user License:  $ 12,995 USD

Team License (Up to 5 Users):   $ 15,995 USD

Company-wide License:   $ 19,995 USD

For more information and ordering please contact Electronics.ca Publications.

Internet of Things Solutions, Business Opportunities, and IoT Forecasts 2015-2020

Internet of Things Spending by Vertical Market

ELECTRONICS.CA PUBLICATIONS, the electronics industry market research and knowledge network, announces the availability of a new IDC report entitled “Worldwide Internet of Things Spending by Vertical Market 2015–2018 Forecast“, which defines the IT opportunity for  all vertical markets that comprise  the burgeoning Internet of Things market. The new report segments the IoT market as well as provides a forecast that illustrates which vertical industries show the greatest market opportunity over the next several years.

As the Internet of Things IoT market starts to coalesce in both concept and solution offering, IDC recommends vendors take the next step and look at this huge IT opportunity in a more realistic and valuable framework. As exciting as the overall opportunity for the IoT market currently exists, understanding the vertical ramifications is paramount. All of the greatest IoT IT opportunities — from the connected home, smart meters, the connected car, and smart grid to personal wellness and connected health — are driven from a vertical market perspective.

The Internet of Things market must be understood in terms of vertical markets because the value of IoT is based on individual use cases across all markets. Successful sales and marketing efforts by vendors will be based on understanding the most lucrative verticals that offer current growth and future potential and then creating solutions for specific use cases that address industry-specific business processes.

IDC defines the Internet of Things concept as a wired or wireless network connecting devices, or “things,” that is characterized by autonomous provisioning, management, and monitoring. IoT already impacts our everyday life down to the smallest processes. The vertical opportunity that arises from IoT is already in play, but only if the need for vertical expertise is recognized and offered. Realizing the existence of vertical opportunity is the first step to understanding the impact — and therefore market opportunity that exists — for IT vendors. In addition:

• IDC has looked at the components, processes, and IT support for IoT and expects the technology and services revenue to expand from $4.8 trillion in 2012 to $7.3 trillion by 2017 at an 8.8% CAGR, with the greatest opportunity initially in the consumer, discrete manufacturing, and government vertical industries.


• The IoT/M2M market is growing quickly, but the development of this market will not be consistent across all vertical markets. Industries that already “understand” IoT will see the most immediate growth, such as industrial production/automotive, transportation, and energy/utilities. However, all verticals will reflect great opportunity.


• IoT is a derivative market containing many elements, including horizontal IT components as well as vertical and industry-specific IT elements. It is these vertical components where IT vendors will have to distinguish themselves to address industry-specific IoT needs.


• IoT opens up many IT vendors to the consumer market, providing B2B2C services to connect and run homes and automobiles — all the places that electronic devices will have a networking capability.

According to the report, the first step to understand how vendors can position themselves will be to understand the components of the IoT/M2M IT ecosphere. Because this is a derivative market, there are many opportunities for vendors to offer parts or product suites that cover the needed IoT IT set. And vendors will have incentive to do so due to rapid growth which will occur as industries see the convenience, productivity, and efficiency that IoT brings to business processes. Accordingly, while horizontal-focused IT vendors will look to offer IoT solutions that appeal to many industries, there will also be impetus to offer vertical-focused solutions that make IoT tangible for both industries applications (M2M) and consumer needs (B2B2C).

The IoT market will greatly impact and offer the potential for vertical-aligned businesses to improve both performance and profitability. The IoT solutions space will expand exponentially and will offer every business endless IoT-focused solutions. The initial strategy of businesses should be to avoid choosing IoT-based solutions that will solve only immediate concerns and lack ‘staying power.

Details of the new report, table of contents and ordering information can be found on Electronics.ca Publications’ web site. View the report: “”Worldwide Internet of Things Spending by Vertical Market 2015–2018 Forecast“

Internet of Things Spending by Vertical Market