The deal will allow Aeris to expand IoT business to India and Europe
Japanese telecom operator SoftBank and U.S-based internet of things (IoT) firm Aeris have agreed to form a joint venture in Japan to provide IoT and telematics services globally using the Aeris IoT solutions platform.
Through this partnership, Aeris will be in a position to expand its business in Japan and other markets including India, Europe and the United States. The joint venture convers multiple market segments and offers a variety of services ranging from an IoT connectivity platform to IoT application middleware to complete IoT solutions for market segments including telematics in the automotive industry.
The Aeris IoT solutions platform is an end-to-end set of key technologies that enable enterprises to bring IoT solutions to market quickly. The platform consists of AerPort connectivity management platform, AerCloud applications enablement platform, AerCore IoT network and AerVoyance IoT analytics platform.
“With the high quality of technology and business platform that Aeris and SoftBank have in IoT domain, we will develop and offer the services through Aeris Japan to meet customers’ needs that are growing in its variety and in its quality,” SoftBank’s VP and COO of Aeris Japan, Hiroshi Akabori, said.
“With Aeris Japan, SoftBank and Aeris are collaborating to seize a huge opportunity in the fast-growing Internet of Things and telematics market in Japan. The combination of SoftBank and Aeris offers a compelling value proposition to automotive OEMs and other enterprises that seek to build profitable IoT and telematics businesses,” Aeris Japan CEO Raj Kanaya said.
Machina Research predicts that IoT will account for one quarter of the global 41 million 5G connections in 2024. Japan and Korea will lead the maket and embedded factory-fit connected cars will be the biggest IoT application, according to Machina Research.
Japan will lead the Asia-Pacific region’s market growth for industrial IoT, which is expected to be worth $54 billion by 2020, according to tech research firm Technavio.
Earlier this week, the Japanese telco announced an agreement to pay $32 billion for U.K chip designer ARM Holdings. The British firm designs the cores inside most of the processors built by Qualcomm, Samsung and other makers of smartphone chipsets.
