What the Numerex Acquisition of Ublip Means: More of the same, just better

To our customers & partners:

As you know, we announced today that Ublip was acquired by Atlanta, Georgia based Numerex, Inc.
- Here is the official announcement of this transaction
- Also, we’ve posted some thoughts of Ublip’s co-founder and CEO, Jeff Smith about the acquisition

Numerex is one of the most important companies in the entire M2M (Machine to Machine) world. Numerex provides a wide array of secure M2M network services and solutions. The company has almost 700,000 active network connections, serving both large and small businesses – as well as the Federal Government & U.S. Military with its sophisticated Network Operations Center. In addition, Numerex is the first M2M Company in North America to carry ISO 27001 certification - ISO’s highest information security benchmark that ensures data confidentiality, integrity and availability.

To that core strength, Ublip brings to Numerex its Foundation technology that helps jumpstart the development, deployment & customization of M2M and location based solutions – as well as our team of M2M veterans.

Meanwhile, Ublip benefits from:
• The financial backing of a solid, NASDAQ listed public company (Symbol: NMRX), that shares our vision for making it easy to create & implement M2M solutions
• Additional General & Administrative resources (in customer support, operations, accounting, provisioning & shipping, etc.) to help support our rapid growth
• Access to Numerex’s network infrastructure

Ublip will operate as a independent subsidiary of Numerex, and you’ll still be dealing with the same core team members. So that part won’t change. But for customers, the acquisition also means:
• Even greater robustness, reliability and security of our hosting infrastructure
• The ability to purchase airtime (whether GPRS, SMS or Satellite) at extremely competitive rates
• Access to more aggressive pricing on hardware
• A wider range of available services and products
• Additional support personnel available 24 x 7

All of us at Ublip are extremely excited about this partnership. We think the benefit for our customers and partners will be great – yet they will still be working with all the same people who created and built what Ublip has already become. We’re looking forward to continuing to work with you in the coming days, weeks, months & years!

- The entire Ublip Team

A lot of people have asked us what is really special, or different, about the Ublip “Foundation” technology - which we think is a key breakthrough in accelerating the deployment of low-cost M2M and location based applications, such as GPS Tracking & Mobile Equipment monitoring.

I’ll admit that the name isn’t very different or creative - we just couldn’t come up with anything better that implied a simple, easy, fast way to build, deploy and customize applications - that is completely hardware & network agnostic. So Foundation it is!

One thing we haven’t talked about much, though, is how our Foundation’s technology approach not only is simple and effective, it also utilizes many of the most important technologies now emerging. In this article, Gartner highlights the “Top 10 Strategic Technologies of 2008″. And its astonishing to see how many items on this list are inherent in our Foundation, including: ‘virtual’ hosting architecture, composite application & ‘mashup’ creation, web services oriented architecture & what is called the “real world web”.

I think it’s good to know for our corporate customers that working with Ublip helps them take advantage of the most important emerging technologies - without having to make any investment on their part.

I’ve been meaning to get around to this post for quite some time. Once or twice a year I go on a family quail hunt in South Texas. Last year I posted a quail hunt video on YouTube that has been getting a reasonable amount of views/comments:

The main reason for posting the video was to share with family and friends the different elements of quail hunting. I’ve come to learn that every hunting guide does things differently depending on how much land is being hunted, area of the country, who their guiding, etc. Every year we’ve been fortunate enough to hunt with Mitch Hurt’s Wild Bird Hunting service. Mitch is an incredible guy and knows everything about every bird that ever existed. At any rate, Mitch uses a wireless technology that helps him determine where his dogs are at all times (he normally puts two down at a time). The bird dogs have collars that transmit a signal back to Mitch’s receiver and it tells the general direction of where the dog is (by beeping) and whether or not the dog is on point (by beeping faster). It’s a rather crude technology at best and by no means extremely accurate. With that being said, the technology (shown in the video above) has stirred up some interesting comments on YouTube. I’ve included a few below for your reading pleasure:

If that doesn’t sum up people’s reactions to technology in an old fashioned industry then I don’t know what does. The comments are rather amusing, nonetheless. The tracking technology is used to provide a more pleasurable hunting experience and not make hunting easier. Sure, it may help us flush more coveys but that doesn’t necessarily equate to killing more birds. If you’ve ever had a covey flush under your feet then you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about (it ain’t easy).

It appears that Garmin sees an opportunity in the bird dog tracking space. This past year Mitch mentioned to me that he’s interested in evaluating the Garmin Astro system. I just pulled it up this morning and was very impressed with the capabilities.

It’s not a cheap system and like all technology the price will come down over time. What’s interesting about this product is that the use of features specific to the quail hunting industry. For example, it’s very common in GPS navigation units to mark a “waypoint” or “point of interest”. Gamin sells this feature as a way to mark a covey and locate your lodge.

I believe there is a common theme that I’m seeing over and over again in this space. Many people are resistant to GPS tracking technology because it either invades someone’s privacy, causes security concerns, or just makes us more efficient. In the case of tracking bird dogs I do believe the technology is beneficial and it still doesn’t make me a better shot. I could go on and on defending my stance (can you tell I’m a bit defensive with the slight beating I’ve taken on YouTube?), but the reality is that GPS tracking may be coming to an industry near you.

As I see it, the leading M2M equipment manufacturers are fighting for market share by chosing one of two device design philosophies. A few are even trying to place their bets on both. Ultimately, the market will decide their fate. The question is whether the market wants “closed” devices with predefined, though configurable, functionality or whether it wants “open” devices with the flexibility to be programmed for a specific application.

In the M2M world today, there are “closed” devices that are configurable, but not programmable, and some that are “open” devices that can be programmed. The largest volume of devices seem to be the “closed” type, but they exist to satisfy several very specific business needs — examples include sub-prime car loans, teen tracking, and various specialized security applications.

When I talk to people who have application ideas, they are very creative about how to use the existing “closed” devices to help them solve a business problem, but often the “closed” device can only get them to the starting gate. So much of their “wish list” requires special features that can’t be justified in a general-purpose device. However, if the specialization can be defined in terms of software and not additional hardware, suddenly the “open” device options become much more attractive.

The tradeoffs are pretty straightforward. “Closed” devices benefit from larger production runs leading to lower costs per unit. With larger numbers come more tested scenarios leading potentially to greater stability and robustness. “Open” devices currently sell fewer numbers, have higher costs, and have been tested less. BUT they also can acheive a wider range of functionality and address a larger number of business solutions.

If “closed” devices are winning on price, volume, and robustness, “open” devices could surge forward by continuing price reductions and the availablity of effective over-the-air programming (OTAP) options, leading to the potential for even greater volume and the hardening through real field use.

Which will win this time? There are serious contenders in both camps. I’m not picking winners here (yet) and am holding off (for now) naming “front runners.” But I’m enjoying watching the battle. Stay tuned…

I keep running across M2M scenarios that would be amazingly great, except for one problem. But the “one problem” is different for each scenario.

If only the device/radio/sensor were under X dollars…

If only the data communications plan were under X dollars a month…

If only you had GSM coverage in XXX…

If only LEO satellites had a latency under X seconds…

If only we could integrate with SAP/IBM/etc…

If only the application were infinitely configurable in seconds…

If only you could get Costco/Walmart/PetCo/etc. to carry it…

THEN we would have the perfect solution!!

I’m enjoying chanting the Ublip mantra of “easy, easy, easy…” because my toes are sore and bloody from stubbing them against so many rocks and saying “if only…” But to be easy, you have to focus on simple. And to be simple, you have to work with what is, not what would be nice to have.