IoT news of the week for May 6, 2022

That’s a lot of LoRaWANs! The LoRa Alliance says that LoRaWAN networks rose by 66% in the last three years. The Alliance didn’t report base numbers, but did provide an analyst quote saying that by 2025 there will be 2 billion LoRaWAN devices on those networks. For reference, the Wi-Fi Alliance estimates that there will be 5.2 billion Wi-Fi 6 product shipments by 2025. Note that only includes Wi-Fi 6-capable products. Wi-Fi 5 products will still be shipping as well. (LoRaWAN Alliance)

OT cybersecurity firm Radiflow to be acquired: Turkey’s Sabanci Group is buying Israeli cybersecurity firm Radiflow in a two-part deal that is expected to close in 2025. Initially, Sabanci, an industrial conglomerate, will pay $45 million for a 51% stake in Radiflow. Radiflow originally made a networking device, but pivoted to cybersecurity software to monitor OT networks. Sabanci Group expects to create a digital business focused on advanced analytics, IoT, and cybersecurity, with Radiflow a part of that organization. (Security Week)

Bosch Sensortec to acquire the makers of a tiny, really loud speaker chip: Bosch Sensortec plans to acquire Arioso Systems for an undisclosed amount. Arioso Systems is a spin-off from the Fraunhofer-Institute for Photonic Microsystems, which has built a really small speaker that can also play sound at up to 120 decibels. This means companies can deliver better sound in a smaller package, which is important as audio interfaces become more common, and also given that governments are loosening the strictures around hearing aid devices, enabling them to be sold over the counter. (EE Times)

Sensors are key to the IoT so MEMS matter: If we want to translate the analog world into a digital experience for computers to analyze then we need micro-electromechanical systems, or MEMS. MEMS are chips that combine a sensor and a digital element to move from analog information to digital information. They’ve been around for ages, but we’re always looking for new MEMs and new capabilities. For example, detecting diseases means we needs labs on a chip while a new focus on air quality requires more exact particulate matter counters. Imec, the European semiconductor research consortium, has released a report on new MEMS tech and the research necessary to make new sensors available at reasonable costs. If you want to see the future, check it out. (imec)

Sonos may be building its own voice assistant: For a long time, I’ve used Sonos as an example of a company that was surprised and then surpassed by innovation. Even as Amazon and others encroached on the smart speaker market with cheaper, less rich-sounding versions that also happened to offer voice control of their devices and productivity apps, Sonos focused on speakers. It lost market share. It sued Google and tried to bring Amazon and Apple’s digital assistants to its own speakers. But now it’s fighting back with rumors that it will launch its own voice assistant on June 1. And why not? I think we’re in the midst of a reckoning. Is Alexa or Echo the innovation? If Alexa is the innovation, then presumably those who want a true digital assistant can use Amazon’s service while those who simply want an easier way to navigate music can turn to Sonos (and likely keep their data). In short, is the value in the digital assistant or the interface? Sonos is betting on the interface. (The Verge)

Smart kitchen company Drop becomes Fresco and gets $20M: I was excited to hear from Drop, a company that I first met with back in 2014 when it was using a smart kitchen scale and an app to rethink how we design recipes. I didn’t care for the scale, but my child loved it and the guided cooking it provided. And that guided cooking and software platform for recipes is what stuck. Fresco signed up several appliance companies that use its software to power their own connected cooking devices and applications. Two of those companies — Vorwerk, which makes the Thermomix cooker, and Instant Brands, which makes the Instant Pot pressure cooker — have chipped in for a $20 million Series B round of funding to help Fresco become the “OS for the kitchen.” (The Spoon)

For a sustainable IoT, we need sustainable chips: The global ICT industry is responsible for somewhere between 1.8% and 3.9% of global carbon emissions, depending on which studies you read. Chipmaking is only a portion of that, but as someone who thinks a lot about e-waste and the components increasingly used in everyday devices, I’m keen to see how we can improve the sustainability of chip manufacturing. The process uses toxic chemicals, requires sterile environments, and gobbles up millions of gallons of clean water. Which is why I liked this story, as it puts more numbers behind the issue. Next, I’d like to see something similar for cellular connectivity. (Ars Technica)