Only three more weeks for developers to submit solutions to the M2M Challenge
Machine-to-Machine (M2M) enables all types of devices to be internet-ready and connected – from utility meters to cars, from e-readers to home appliances. Connected devices offer a wide range of opportunities for everyone from manufacturers to consumers, from entertainment, fitness & sports, or localization – with new Mobility solutions manufacturers and companies are able to connect with their customers and offer different services.
With M2M companies can reduce the cost of monitoring and controlling assets, optimizes logistics and assembly lines, and simplifies payment processing. The same applies to fleet management. Imagine all cars of a company equipped with chips, communicating and transmitting GPS coordinates, mileage, last check etc. Or one of last year’s finalists of the M2M Challenge, Mobilisis, who developed Magsense, a state-of-the-art solution for managing outdoor parking spaces in shopping centers and airports. It detects and counts the number of vacant parking spaces, and helps automatically identify offenders.
Many big car manufacturers also use M2M in their vehicles, and not only for navigation, security and safety systems. baimos technologies and automotive component supplier Marquardt released the BlueID technology. The digital key ring enables smartphones to control a car, and open the car or the top remotely, lock it. Car rentals and car sharing companies could profit from this technology and make renting/sharing easier. Drive-now by BMW and Sixt issues a chip, with which a car can be locked and unlocked upon renting the car with the accompanying app that also helps finding a car nearby.
TomTom’s new GPS devices include GSM chips and offer their Lifetime Traffic either already built-in or via smartphones. With this technology, TomTom enables drivers to make smart decisions and avoid traffic jams. This is the kind of innovation the M2M Challenge – the world’s biggest M2M competition – is seeking in the category Mobility, amongst others: until November 30, 2013 developers can submit their solution to www.m2m-challenge.com, free of charge, and demonstrate the huge innovation potential in machine-to-machine communication.
In addition to the category Mobility, the M2M Challenge includes the categories Consumer Electronics & More, Healthcare, Security, and Energy. All entries will be evaluated by an international team of experts; the winner will be awarded at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
