We hope everyone had a great week!

Last week, Paul virtually attended IEEE International Conference on Quantum Software. Anshel had advisory meetings in Austin.

Melody attended Reuters Momentum this week and will virtually be attending Enterprise Connect Digital Summit next week.

Our MI&S team published 45 deliverables:

• 5 Forbes insight columns
•  27 MI&S blogs
• 12 podcasts   
• 1 research papers

The press and others cited us 8 times. We were cited about about AI, Samsung, MediaTek, quantum computing, and Threads.  

MIS Quick Insights:

A.I./Machine Learning (Paul Smith-Goodson)

• Recent advancements in robotics and AI have raised questions about their potential role in nursing, a highly humane practice. Associate Professor Tomohide Ibuki from Tokyo University of Science, medical ethics researcher Dr. Eisuke Nakazawa, and nursing researcher Dr. Ai Ibuki explored whether robots and AI can replicate the ethical concepts attributed to human nurses, including advocacy, accountability, cooperation, and caring. While AI can inform patients about medical errors and present treatment options, the researchers questioned its ability to truly understand and empathize with patients’ values and navigate human relationships as mediators effectively. They also expressed concerns about holding robots accountable for their actions and suggested the development of explainable AI to improve accountability.
• OpenAI has implemented initial support for 70 new plugins for ChatGPT. Like plugins for websites, these plugins are tools designed specifically for language models with safety as a core principle to help ChatGPT access up-to-date information, run computations, or use third-party services. The first plugins have been created by Expedia, FiscalNote, Instacart, KAYAK, Klarna, Milo, OpenTable, Shopify, Slack, Speak, Wolfram, and Zapier.  Plugins will extend the use of ChatGPT by using custom actions for various pieces of software. I expect this will become a trend for every version of large language models.
• Leaders in the AI industry, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Microsoft’s Brad Smith, met with policymakers to discuss their visions for AI regulation. Altman warned that the EU’s proposed AI Act could lead OpenAI to stop offering its services if it cannot comply with regulations. Pichai emphasized the need for appropriate AI guardrails that don’t stifle innovation, while Smith proposed a five-point blueprint for the public governance of AI. All expressed a willingness to be regulated as long as it doesn’t interfere with commercial ambitions.

AR/VR (Anshel Sag)

• Samsung is reportedly trying to redesign its AR device in response to Apple’s Vision Pro headset, which I believe is a mistake because Apple is already struggling to manufacture its headset in volume. I think Samsung should not try to deliver a Halo product as its first product.
• China mobile has formed a metaverse industry alliance with Xiaomi, Huawei, HTC, and Unity, showing once again that operators strongly believe the value XR has in taking advantage of cellular networks like 5G and driving demand for new products and services.

Carrier/Wireless (Will Townsend)

• Ericsson and Nokia saw its stocks dive this week despite Ericsson delivering at its Q2 guidance. A RAN infrastructure forecast that broke this week predicting future revenue declines may contribute to the recent stock dips by both companies. Each has solid portfolios and adjacent sales opportunities and should weather the RAN storm.
• China is aggressively pushing its 6G vision to the world, and other markets are taking notice. Huawei recently announced its intention to launch a portfolio of 5.5G infrastructure next year, and it could be the precursor to 6G gear. It is unclear if the embattled company will have a wide reach, given continued pressure in the EU to remove all Chinese telecom equipment, but it has proved resilient in the past.

Datacenter:

Networking– (Will Townsend)

• The continued convergence of networking, security, AI, and cloudification into a single technology stack should bode well for companies like Cisco and HPE that offer full, end-to-end portfolios. Other competitors in the network infrastructure space will need to up their games with acquisitions and organic, incremental roadmap development efforts to compete.
• Arista seems to be a company without an identity. Juniper is making waves with AIOps, Cisco is furthering its lead in observability with recent acquisitions, and Extreme owns the sports venue segment. Arista should anchor itself to a level of technical depth or risk losing a competitive edge.

Data Compute (Matt Kimball)

• I find rumors of NVIDIA’s anchoring investments in Arm’s IPO very interesting. We all remember the proposed acquisition a year or so ago that NVIDIA eventually walked away from because of too much regulatory oversight. I can see why the company would be eager to jump in on this IPO for multiple reasons. And a healthy Arm IPO is good for the industry – the increased competition in the datacenter brings out the best in all competitors and delivers value to the customer.
• More observations from my time in Europe (part II) – sustainability is not just a talking point on the continent. It’s a lived experience that has implications for enterprise IT and datacenter operators. And it’s coming to the US. This will have several implications for IT solutions providers – provable measures of solutions helping IT reduce carbon emissions to accompany the financial benefits of a greener footprint. Get ready server and IT solutions vendors – check your messaging frameworks and value props – the market will demand it.
• HPE announced it will start manufacturing servers in India to meet the government requirements for tenders and bids. As it has done with local manufacturing in the US, the company is beginning with high-volume servers and will eventually expand its manufacturing line. The concept of local manufacturing is a trend we see worldwide as government entities and nationalism are driving the requirements for companies like HPE to either establish a manufacturing facility or contract with a local manufacturer.

Security  (Matt Kimball)

• Is a security market consolidation in the near term? When will we see the market come together with well over 1,500 security vendors out there? I think the answer is – not for a long time. There are far too many segments and niches within security. However, I believe companies like Cisco, Dell, and others are taking steps to enable better integration and full-scale protection for the enterprise through their respective approaches.
• What to make of the latest disruption of service at Azure? The DDoS attack caused a disruption for about six hours, and the telemetry collected by MSFT can pinpoint exactly when and how the attack took place. While the ability to pinpoint all of this in an after-action is impressive, the big takeaway is that the cloud is not some compute Fort Knox impervious to hacking attempts, despite what IT organizations are told. With 45% of attacks originating in the cloud, enterprise IT has to put more emphasis on holistic security.

Storage (Matt Kimball)

• Inspur preconditioned the market to forecast a dip in sales tied to a lack of components (i.e., GPUs and CPUs). Sanctions placed earlier in the year are starting to impact companies such as Inspur as supplies run low and replenishments are nowhere to be found. As a server vendor that supported many hyperscalers, I am curious to see what this means for other vendors such as Lenovo and Supermicro.  I guess we’ll see over the next couple of quarters.
• Oracle certifying Database 19c for Arm signal that the architecture will find its way into the enterprise datacenter? The short-term answer is no, but I believe the long-term answer is absolutely yes—the parallels between Arm’s ascension and the rise of Wintel in the 90s. While I haven’t seen benchmark data yet, the financial side of the price/performance metric is heavily in favor of Arm. At 50% savings, this adds up very quickly for IT organizations. And the frictionless port from x86 to Arm removes perhaps the most significant barrier to entry.

ESG (Melody Brue)

• N/A

Financial Tech (Melody Brue)

• The U.S. e-commerce market is projected to reach nearly $1.2 trillion in sales this year. During Amazon’s Prime Day, consumers spent a record-breaking $12.7 billion online over two days, indicating a 6.1% YoY growth. Competing retailers like Walmart also offered significant discounts during Prime Day, increasing competition and creating a halo effect for other retailers to capture adjacent sales as consumers compare prices online. Buy now pay later (BNPL) usage during Prime Day drove $927 million in revenue, with categories like apparel, furniture/home, and electronics leading the way. BNPL installment loans with zero interest are favorable for managing cash flow in a high-interest rate environment. Supply chain planning is impacted by discount events, influencing demand forecasting, inventory management, supplier coordination, logistics, and returns. Whether Amazon will hold an additional Prime Day event this year remains unannounced, but I imagine other retailers and BNPL providers are gearing up to respond.
• PayPal announced tap-to-pay functionality for merchants in the United States using the Venmo and Zettle apps on Android phones. This feature allows businesses to accept payments by tapping cards or digital wallets. Last November, it was launched in the UK and is now available for US-based merchants using the Zettle app. Venmo for business profile users will have a phased rollout in the coming months. Merchants can request early access to this feature. PayPal also plans to introduce tap-to-pay support for Venmo for Business and Zettle customers on iPhone in the US. This update follows Stripe’s introduction of a similar feature for Android phones in multiple countries.

IioT and IoT (Bill Curtis)

• Surprisingly, many OEMs begin new IoT projects by demonstrating concepts on readily available, inexpensive, open-source embedded platforms. Although designed primarily for experimenters and students, developers often use Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and other off-the-shelf SoMs for proof-of-concept development. Today, weak security and immature system software preclude extending these platforms into prototype and product deployments. However, this situation is rapidly changing. Last year, I reviewed Arduino’s Portenta X8 with a FoundriesFactory DevSecOps Linux distro and concluded that the platform was secure enough for commercial development. In a blog last week, Foundries.io’s John Weil confirmed that this hardware and software combination meets the EU’s proposed Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) standards for embedded computer systems “right out of the box.” The CRA has stringent security requirements, including ongoing patches and updates throughout the product’s life. Not surprisingly, the increasing product security costs and complexity motivate OEMs to outsource system software, OS maintenance, and fleet management to companies already offering those services at scale. The “IoT platform” trend is rapidly accelerating.

Modern Work (Melody Brue)

• Generative AI has the potential to revolutionize the customer service industry. The technology, deployed in call centers everywhere, enables the automatic generation of personalized responses, allowing human agents more time to focus on in-depth interactions related to complex matters and nurturing long-term customer relationships.
• Recent data shows that over 50% of teams lack the knowledge and confidence to utilize generative AI effectively. Despite this, workers recognize the potential benefits of generative AI in improving customer experiences, with 61% of salespeople and 63% of service professionals believing it can enhance their respective roles. Among those already using generative AI, 84% of salespeople reported increased sales, while 90% of service professionals found it helped them serve customers faster. However, overall adoption of generative AI remains low, partly due to a skills gap and fear of job loss. Many expressed that their company data needs to be more adequately prepared to implement generative AI. This is an ample opportunity for companies to train to bridge the skills gap and fine-tune basic prompt engineering with knowledge and frontline workers.
• RingCentral now provides compliant enterprise-grade cloud telephony in India. The company successfully obtained regulatory verifications from the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) India and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). Consequently, multinational organizations in India can easily access RingCentral-powered cloud phone capabilities for compliant communications with customers, partners, and employees. This gives RingCentral an advantage in the geo since, if organizations in India opt for non-compliant global cloud telephony solutions, they expose themselves to the risk of audits that could lead to sudden service shutdowns.

Personal Computing (Anshel Sag)

• Halo Car has announced that it will deploy its fully autonomous vehicle delivery service in Las Vegas using T-Mobile’s 5G network as its primary infrastructure.
• T-Mobile continues to dominate OpenSignal’s 5G experience survey in some areas but loses to Verizon in others. T-Mobile continues to lead in 5G availability and download speeds, which seems to indicate that T-Mobile still has a lead but that Verizon is following closely behind. Interestingly, OpenSignal still gives Verizon more awards for ‘5G Experience’, which I’m not entirely sure makes much sense if T-Mobile’s network has more availability and better speeds.
• DoCoMo has launched a mmWave Private 5G network in Hong Kong, using 26 and 28 GHz spectrum, again showing the value of private 5G networks to businesses.
• Meta’s launch of Threads with 30 million users gained in a single day shows how much appetite there has been for a competitor to Twitter, especially from brands, celebrities, and influencers put off by Twitter’s former CEO’s behavior. If Meta simply listens to users’ wants and works diligently with advertisers, it could be very successful.
• Twitter is complaining that Meta’s launch of Threads has poached many of Twitter’s employees and may face legal action, which seems like a very sore response considering how many of its employees Twitter has Laid off.

Quantum Computing (Paul Smith-Goodson)

• A team of scientists at the University of Zurich has made a breakthrough in superconductors by designing them on an atomic level. In a study published in Nature Physics, Professor Titus Neupert’s research group, in partnership with physicists from the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Halle, Germany, revealed their solution to creating new quantum materials by constructing them one atom at a time. They focused on developing new superconductors with no electrical resistance. The team predicted the arrangement of atoms needed to create a new superconductive phase and conducted experiments to achieve the desired topology. Adding chromium atoms to superconducting niobium created two new forms of superconductivity. Their results support their predictions and open up possibilities for creating new states of matter for future quantum computers. This raises the question of whether it is possible to create a qubit more perfect than those found in nature, as claimed by trapped ion and neutral atom quantum computing companies.
• Quobly, founded in 2022, recently received USD 21 million in funding on the basis it will develop fault-tolerant quantum computing processors. Its technology is silicon spin qubits, based on classical computing technologies to take advantage of semiconductor manufacturing techniques to create a processor with millions of quantum bits needed for fault-tolerant quantum computers. Quobly intends to use the funding to establish partnerships that will help it accelerate its research program.
• It will compete with Intel, which is also developing a quantum computer along the same lines as Quobly.
• IonQ and QuantumBasel have partnered to deploy two generations of IonQ quantum systems in Europe. The deal aims to bring two IonQ future quantum systems, #AQ1 35 and #AQ 64, to Switzerland. These systems will serve European industry, government entities, and research institutes by providing local access to IonQ’s quantum systems. IonQ will also establish a quantum innovation center for the entire EMEA region at the uptownBasel campus in Arlesheim, Switzerland.
• A big relief for D-Wave – it regained compliance with the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) by meeting its continued listing standard for the minimum share price. The NYSE provided D-Wave with a notification letter of recompliance based on the company’s share price being at least #1.00 and average closing price for the 30 trading days ended June 30, 2023. D-Wave will continue to be traded on the NYSE under the ticker symbol QBTS, subject to its continued compliance with all applicable listing standards. So this could only be temporary, depending on how its stock price holds up.

Security (Will Townsend)

• Cisco recently warned its customers of a vulnerability that allows tampering of encrypted traffic across some of its Nexus 9000 datacenter switches. This phenomenon is not new, but it will likely become more widespread as bad actors lean into AI to become more sophisticated in attacks. AI continues to be a double-edged sword, one that will improve security postures but at the same time present a threat.

Columns Published 

1. What Amazon Prime Day Data Could Tell Retailers About 2023 Holiday Shopping, by Melody Brue
2. Fear, Uncertainty And Doubt In The Radio Access Network Market, by Will Townsend
3. PayPal Makes Strategic Moves With Expansion Of Venmo Offerings, by Melody Brue
4. IBM Watsonx Empowers Businesses To Build, Tune And Deploy Reliable Generative AI Models, by Paul Smith-Goodson
5. My Fourth Of July In The Florida Keys Demonstrated The Value Of Connectivity, by Will Townsend

Blogs Published (MI&S)                                                             

1. MongoDB ‘Loves Developers’ At MongoDB.local NYC, by Patrick Moorhead
2. BAYER – Happy Employees Make Happy Customers, by Patrick Moorhead
3. Will The U.S. Government’s Latest Cyber Policy Actually Improve U.S. Security? By Patrick Moorhead
4. Qualcomm Is Right About AI: It Requires Strong Edge Computing, by Patrick Moorhead
5. IBM Acquires Apptio To Deliver Hybrid Multi-Cloud FinOps, by Patrick Moorhead
6. HPE Further Highlights GreenLake On-Prem Cloud At Discover Event, by Patrick Moorhead
7. Lattice Semiconductor Charts Growth With Strong Performance And Market Expansion, by Patrick Moorhead
8. NI Flexes Its Test And Measurement Muscles With New Product Releases At NI Connect, by Patrick Moorhead
9. Bayer– Happy Employees Make Happy Customers, by Patrick Moorhead
10. AMD Laid The Groundwork For Big Hyperscaler AI Accelerator Play In The Future, by Patrick Moorhead
11. EU Draft Regulations Are A Nightmare For Intellectual Property—And Innovation, by Patrick Moorhead
12. Analyst Quick Take: Oracle Database On Arm, by Matt Kimball
13. Research Note: Pure Storage Accelerate Take Aways, by Matt Kimball
14. Defining Network Observability And Assessing The Market Leaders, by Will Townsend
15. Research Note: Oracle Launches Exadata X10M, by Matt Kimball
16. Google Cloud Unleashes AI On Money Laundering Activities After Successful HSBC Trial, by Melody Brue
17. HPE Extends Its Enterprise NaaS Leadership At Discover 2023, by Will Townsend
18. Green Hushing In The Corporate World: Why ESG Is No Longer A Topic Of Discussion, by Melody Brue
19. Qualcomm’s Mobile-Focused Open Approach To The AR Ecosystem Of The Future, by Anshel Sag
20. Digging Deeper On Dell’s Datacentric Approach, by Matt Kimball
21. Zscaler Delivers Smarter Zero Trust At Zenith Live 2023, by Will Townsend
22. Research Note: Lenovo Infrastructure Solution Summit ’23, by Matt Kimball
23. AMD Delivers 128 Cores In Bergamo, by Matt Kimball
24. The Rise Of Augmented Reality In The Modern Workplace, by Melody Brue
25. The Low Earth Orbit Satellite Space Race: Starlink Versus AST SpaceMobile, by Will Townsend
26. HP Poly Unveils AI-Powered On-Device Solutions For Hybrid Collaboration At InfoComm 2023, by Melody Brue
27. DigiLens Dominated AWE 2023 With A Slew Of New Partnerships, by Anshel Sag

Research Paper(s):

• RESEARCH PAPER: Quantinuum Unveils Its Next Generation Quantum Computer, by Paul Smith-Goodson

Podcasts:

The G2 on 5G by Moor Insights & Strategy, with Anshel Sag and Will Townsend

1. The G2 on 5G Podcast – NTT Tour De France, Dish Echostar Merger, T-Mobile 5G Allstar Game and more!
2. The G2 on 5G Podcast – Huawei 5.5G Reality, Halo 5G Autonomy, Nokia 5G Core Cloud Goes Redhat & More
3. The G2 on 5G Podcast – Vodafone 5G Ultra, AST SpaceMobile Test, July 1st FAA deadline and more!

The Six-Five Podcast by Moor Insights & Strategy and Futurum Research, with Patrick Moorhead and Daniel Newman

1. The Six Five Insider Edition with Micron’s Chris Moore, VP of Marketing, Mobile Business Unit 
2. Ep 174: We are Live! Talking Chip Sanctions, Qualcomm, Micron, IBM, Oracle, NVIDIA, and Snowflake

 

Moor Insights & Strategy Podcasts

1. Is AI Reinventing the Way We Invent? A Conversation with Thomas Andersen, Synopsys VP, AI & ML
2. Ep 4: Hot Desk Podcast: Cisco & Tribeca Film Fest Partnership, Google’s Generative AI Warning & More
3. Hot or Not? Augmented Reality in Modern Work – Episode 4 – Hot Desk Podcast
4. Green Hushing – Episode 4 – Hot Desk Podcast
5. Google Warns Employees About Using GAI – Episode 4 – Hot Desk Podcast
6. Webex Gets into Showbiz with Tribeca Film Festival Partnership – Episode 4 – Hot Desk Podcast
7. Ep7: MI&S Datacenter Podcast: Cisco, IBM, HPE, Oracle, AMD, Arm, IoNQ, “Dirty Data,” and AI

 

Citations: 

1. AI/ Fierce Electronics/ Patrick Moorhead: https://www.fierceelectronics.com/electronics/surviving-ai-job-apocalypse
2. Samsung & Mediatek/ 5G Americas/ Will Townsend: https://www.5gamericas.org/samsung-electronics-and-mediatek-achieve-innovative-5g-uplink-breakthrough-with-three-transmit-antennas/
3. Quantum/ Merriam-Webster/ Paul Smith-Goodson: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quantum%20leap
4. Quantum/ National Defense University Press/ Paul Smith-Goodson: https://ndupress.ndu.edu/JFQ/Joint-Force-Quarterly-110/Article/Article/3447271/quantum-computing-a-new-competitive-factor-with-china/
5. Samsung & Mediatek/ Inside Towers/ Will Townsend: https://insidetowers.com/samsung-mediatek-achieve-363-mbps-uplink-with-3tx-antennas/
6. Semiconductors/ PC Magazine/ Anshel Sag: https://www.pcmag.com/news/silicon-usa-technology-made-in-america
7. Samsung & Mediatek/ SDX Central/ Will Townsend: https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/could-a-third-transmit-antenna-be-the-key-to-higher-5g-uplink-speeds/2023/07/
8. Threads/ Washington Examiner/ Melody Brue: https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/technology/twitter-meta-clash-pits-the-unsavory-against-the-uncool/article_f2f8b90c-1b98-11ee-ba47-2f9c2d1b3b5f.html

Company:

• N/A

New Gear or Software We are Using and Testing that is Public Knowledge

• Alienware X16
• Alienware 720H, 620M and 420K
• Moto Razr+
• RedMagic Keyboard and Mouse

Events MI&S Plans on Attending In-Person or Virtually (New)

• July
  • Splunk .conf, Las Vegas, July 19 (Patrick Moorhead)
  • Enterprise Connect Digital Summit, July 20 (Melody Brue – virtual)
  • Samsung Unpacked, July 23 (Anshel Sag, Patrick Moorhead)
• August
  • VMWorld, August, Las Vegas (Matt Kimball)
  • Zoom Perspectives, Silicon Valley, Aug 1-3 (Melody Brue)
  • VMware Explore – Las Vegas, August 21-24 (Will Townsend, Patrick Moorhead)
  • Google Cloud Next, San Francisco, August 29-31 (Pat Moorhead)
• September
  • IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing & Engineering, Bellevue WA, September 17-22 (Paul Smith-Goodson)
  • Salesforce Dreamforce, September 11-13 (Patrick Moorhead)
  • Intel Innovation 2023, September 19-20 (Anshel Sag, Patrick Moorhead)
  • Oracle Cloud World, September 18-20 (Virtual) (Patrick Moorhead, Matt Kimball)
  • AI Summit, Austin Sept 20-21 (Paul Smith-Goodson)
  • Connected Britain – London, September 20-21 (Will Townsend)
  • MWC Las Vegas – September 26-28 (Will Townsend)
• October
  • RingCentral Analyst Event (Melody Brue)
  • 5G Americas, Dalla, October 11-12 (Anshel Sag)
  • OpenText, Las Vegas, October 11 (Patrick Moorhead)
  • Lenovo Industry Analyst Event, October 16-19 (Patrick Moorhead, Matt Kimball)
  • Lenovo TechWorld, October 23 (Patrick Moorhead)
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit, Maui October 24-26 (Patrick Moorhead)
  • Money 20/20, October 23-26 (Melody Brue)
• November
  • Dell Analyst Summit, November 1, Austin (Matt Kimball)
  • Cloudera Evolve, New York, November 2 (Patrick Moorhead)
  • UCX USA, Austin, November 13-14 (Melody Brue)
  • SC 23, November 13-15 (Patrick Moorhead)
  • AWS re:Invent, November 27-30 (Patrick Moorhead)
• December
  • RingCentral Analyst Summit, Napa (Melody Brue)
  • Marvell IA Day, December 5 (Patrick Moorhead)
• January
  • CES 2024, January 7-11^th (Patrick Moorhead)
• February
  • Mobile World Congress, February 24-29th (Patrick Moorhead)

 

Subscribe

• Sign up here to get specific AI/ML, Datacenter, Cloud Services, Client Computing, IIoT, and Semiconductor content.

The Team

Analysts, Analysts In-Residence, Contributors

1. Patrick Moorhead, Founder, CEO, Chief Analyst; Broad technology coverage plus deep insights into Cloud & SaaS, Personal Computing Devices, Semiconductors, & Automotive
2. Melody Brue, Principal Analyst, Modern Work and ESG
3. Bill Curtis, Analyst In-Residence, IIoT, and Deep IoT Technology
4. Matt Kimball, Principal Analyst, Datacenter Servers, Storage CI, and HCI
5. Anshel Sag, Principal Analyst; VR, PC Gaming, Mobile Platforms
6. Paul Smith-Goodson, Principal Analyst; Machine Learning, A.I. and Quantum Computing
7. Will Townsend, Principal Analyst; Security, Carrier Services, Networking
8. Jacob Freyman, Junior Analyst

Operations 

1. Dan Pickens, Business Director
2. Paula Moorhead, Marketing Director, Website and Social Media
3. Zane Pickett, Office Manager, AP, AR, travel, writer
4. Christian Babcock, AP & AR
5. Lee LeClercq Williams, Business Associate
6. Nigel Church, Business Associate, Writer, Editor
7. Connor Kenyon, Six Five Sales & Business Development