When Google announced that they were acquiring Motorola Home, I thought they would use it as a vehicle into the connected home market. They then launched the android@home initiative which I think would further cement their position. I held that opinion until last month when they said they have sold Motorola Home to ARRIS for $2.35 Billion in cash and stock.
Motorola's EDGE Manager has become Time Warner Cable (TWC) chosen platform for device management. The solution will allow TWC to access its subscribers devices and provide services such as software update and troubleshoot problems. Time Warner Cable will be able to see these devices operating in real-time so that they can identify and address issues before they become a problem.
Between the months of December and February electronics manufacturers release their latest and best innovations in whatever devices they make. This is to capitalise on the Christmas spending and also to be a recipient of the CES Innovations award. The other reason and more so now than ever before more of us what to networked the devices in our home and the new year is a good time to make the investment. So I have made a list some of the best networking devices that have been released so far this year from the likes of Cisco, Netgear, Belkin, D-Link and many others.
Verizon is to introduce a new range of Home Media Servers to work with its set-top boxes. The new Verizon Media Servers will be more energy efficient and will only need a scale down version Verizon set-top box in each room connected to your television. Developed in partnership with Motorola; Verizon said they will only need to deploy a smaller set-top box to each room, one that is small enough to connected to the back of your television.
Motorola has release the findings from its 2011 ‘Motorola Mobility Media Engagement Barometer’ study. They found that new digital home solutions such as cloud services, social and mobile TV are changing the way we see our home appliances. Also consumer wants more content and connection. They also found that the new connected services have created additional revenue streams for service providers.
AT&T has decided to get in on the home energy management action by indicating that they will be launching their own home energy management platform in the near future. Jeffery Dygert, the company’s Executive Director of Public Policy broke the news during a panel discussion on the Broadband Breakfast Club; moderated by GigaoM reporter Katie Fehrenbacher. Jeffery said they want to offer the solution so that its customers can get more information about the energy they use within the home.
Motorola was at this year’s SCTE Show in Atlanta to discuss and show their roadmap for the connected home. They talked about DreamGallery, an operator’s SDK (Software Development Kit) and how they are working with Shaw Communications to develop a new guide experience for Shaw’s customers based on DreamGallery. Motorola Mobility also launched the Motorola APX3000, a high density Universal Edge QAM and said they have updated some operator infrastructure systems.
The connected home has become the new technology battle ground for the electronics and software giants; with a market stand to worth tens of billons of dollars, we are on the verge of a feeding frenzy. Today Google announced plans to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion to become one of the biggest player in the connected home market. Bear in mind that it was just two months ago that Google abandon plans to continue to offer its PowerMeter service come 16 September this year. See why this acquisition is more than mobile phone and what is next?
After a successful collaboration with Verizon to implement a home monitoring and control service, Motorola said they are teaming up with Honeywell security to offer a connected home security solution to service providers. Motorola is inviting cable and telecom service providers to top into this new revenue stream; by allowing customer more than the usual telephone, broadband and television service.
Guided by our changing lifestyle, Motorola has launch the ‘Motorola Televation’, a new video streaming device that allows us to watch video content from anywhere in our home. As a form of media shifting, Motorola said the Televation will work with our Wi-Fi router to stream digital content to other IP connected devices in the home, such as an Apple iOS and Android based device. The new device is supported by a development kit to encourage content provider to develop new solutions.