CeBIT Report 2008
As usual, MaceCorp attended this year’s CeBIT show. Compared with previous years, we noted there were more stands which occupied less space: apart from the huge platform occupied by Deutsche Telekom, the other exhibitors had smaller stands. France was this year’s ‘host’. Over 150 French exhibitors represented the UbiFrance theme, and reminded the world that French companies, as well as emerging high tech innovators based in the Far East, were still leading technology innovators.CeBIT has declined in scale since its heyday in the late 1990s, when 60,000 visitors a day were reported, but despite the show being reduced from seven to six days, 495,000 attendees were recorded (up 3% from 2007) and nearly 6000 firms exhibited. We noted more exhibitors from the Far East and whilst on the floor we noticed more visitors speaking Eastern European languages!
This year’s show was set against concerns over a global recession which will put the brakes on IT spending; this could, say commentators, put pressure on suppliers to offer better terms as well as defer decisions by buyers on large scale investments. The financial analyst firm CLSA estimates that steady growth in IT spending over the four previous years will flatten out during 2008, whilst Forrester noted that IT managers were entering a period of greater economic uncertainty.
1. GREEN THEME
The organisers made Green IT the theme of this year's show to be the environment and built a "Green Village" to exhibit ways to boost corporate energy efficiency and reduce toxic IT waste. "Green IT" is a trend impossible to ignore as both energy costs and climate-altering carbon emissions soar. According to IDC, the ICT industry has overtaken aviation in terms of carbon emissions believed to cause global warming, accounting for around 2 percent of all emissions.
Specifically, as well as climate change protection, the industry now recognises there is a greater need for energy efficiency and savings in the data centre. As well as recycling used IT equipment parts, firms must minimise the ever increasing cost of their data processing. The accelerated growth in storage requirements is also leading to increased power consumption, and we were reminded that recent regulatory requirements such as the EU Data Retention Directive for telecoms service providers and MiFID for financial services have massively increased the need for data storage in these industries. Even desktop computers in offices generate unacceptable levels of heat. IDC claims that some organisations spend more on power consumption than on computer hardware, as this generates heat which is lost. Greenpeace further believes that harmful ingredients should be replaced with safer alternatives and design changes made for energy efficiency. (Greenpeace had a small stand which was located not within the Green Village but elsewhere in the show.)
T-Mobile announced that starting in 2008 it would source its energy needs from renewable sources to power its network infrastructure, whilst Microsoft announced an agreement with a German company to reduce energy consumption of PCs.
2. HIGHLIGHTS
Microsoft’s president Steve Ballmer’s keynote speech followed the computer industry through four phases of evolution; entering the fifth phase is leading to the greater ubiquitous use of technology in everyday life, in social interaction as well as personal and business use. Subscribers will possess a single identity for all their connectivity, communication and entertainment needs.
BITKOM’s president Prof Scheer provided statistics to show that German spend more time on the Internet than watching TV. IPTV is making inroads in Germany, as broadband makes a lot of things possible such as IPTV and video on demand. German users in 2007 legally downloaded over 40 million large items (video, music etc) to the value of 168 million Euros.
3. TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
This year’s CeBIT showcased technologies that have been developed and trialled over the years. These are starting to be utilised in viable, commercial applications.
LTE
Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a technology for speeding up wireless data networks to cater for the hunger for wireless broadband, and could support applications such as high definition TV. At the show, T-Mobile in conjunction with Ericsson demonstrated mobile broadband speeds at 100Mbps download and 50Mbps upload. T-Mobile is also reportedly trialling other advanced technologies including Mobile WiMAX. The operator said its final technology choice for wireless broadband would be based not only on the technology but also on factors such as IPR, cost and ecosystem viability.
Location based services
GPS capability is being incorporated more and more into mobile phones as well as personal navigation devices, and both these are showing growth thanks to the lower cost of integrating GPS capability into handsets. Recent high profile consolidation in the industry is attested to by the acquisition of NAVTEQ by Nokia and of TeleAtlas by TomTom. As well as engendering price competition, this development is encouraging innovation and clever supply chain agreements. Recent navigation applications are becoming more user friendly, with 3D maps and pictures of location. At the show, NDrive claimed the first launch ever of GPS with aerial photography to allow the navigator to see the road as it is. At the show also, IMS predicted that GPS would be incorporated into other everyday appliances such as digital cameras laptops and personal media players.
There is a move to harmonise geographical data, which is currently not represented in a uniform way across European countries. The EU’s Infrastructure of Spatial Info in Europe (INSPIRE) initiative is aiming to build a homogeneous pan-European geodata infrastructure. A homogeneous representation of geodata would be useful in areas such as mobile mast site planning as well as public emergency and disaster response applications.
Machine to Machine and Telematics
Machine to Machine (M2M) and Telematics have begun to enter the growth phase. According to T-Systems, cars are becoming end devices, with ‘Internet in your car’ providing information and ‘infotainment’ Straightforward in-car satnav applications are being extended to useful real-time applications such as warning of impending hazards and traffic conditions further up the road.
Telemedicine
Telemedicine is an application of M2M and the show had a section dedicated to this growing area. Applications included telemonitoring (remote tracking) of patients, and remote prescription provision; these can use a combination of connectivity technologies including Bluetooth, cable and wireless.
RFID
RFID, which has been developing for some years, is also entering the growth phase as shown in CeBIT’s AutoID/RFID Solutions Park. This showed real commercial applications in industries including airline, retail, pharmaceutical and health care. ABI research forecasts the global market for RFID will more than double from US USD3.8 billion worldwide in 2007 to USD 8.4billion in 2012. Analysts forecast high growth where governments make the technology a legal requirement, as with national ID card schemes. China has introduced a national ID card based on the technology.
As the range of applications broadens to include those involving personal details such as financial cards and ID cards, the need to address privacy concerns becomes paramount.
The Taiwan government announced plans to fund its RFID industry to the tune of T$3.6 billion over next three years as well as encourage supply chain development.
Hardware Devices
CeBIT showed a range of upwardly mobile devices (UMD) and mobile Internet devices (MID). These are low cost Internet centric computers which are always connected – though as one commentator points out the definition of these devices depends on their manufacturers. Intel is a leading player in this product group which is forecast to become popular. The devices will feature multiple wireless connectivity functions including WiFi, WiMAX and wireless and will support wide range of applications including medical monitoring.
IT Services
Indian computing services providers attested to the fact that they are offering a wider range of services than straightforward data processing; for example Satyam and Tata offer a wide range of services including business application development and business process management.