Connectivity Solutions
R&D Services
In the Connectivity Solutions product and service area Bittium provides professional design services and technology expertise in the areas of wireless devices, network infrastructure, IoT solutions, and software development. Bittium also offers its customers software robot solutions (RPA solutions) based on its own secure platform. Bittium also conducts R&D in the technology areas of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cloud Solutions. Bittium has long experience in system design, technology integration, wireless radio and antenna technologies, and power optimized, small form-factor device development. The understanding of industry-specific requirements, strong competence in R&D services, wireless devices, digitalization and information security along with the ISO 13485:2016 quality certificate, covering the devices, and equipment for health care enable Bittium to create solutions which bring clear added value to our customers and partners.
Year 2020
The development of R&D service offering continued during 2020, especially for the telecommunications, medical technology, automotive and industrial Internet markets. The development of operating methods and organization also continued, which has brought more efficiency in operations. Bittium continued to provide connectivity solutions to its customers with the goal of further increasing the number of R&D service projects and expanding the customer base. Demand for R&D services remained stable in 2020.
As the demand for 5G technology development leveled off, Bittium has continued to invest in new customers and application areas. The company also continued to deliver different kind of connectivity solutions to its customers and aims at growing the amount of product development projects and widening its customer base. As a new application area for product development services, Bittium joined Rightware´s Kanzi partner program and has introduced its own OEM application management and security solutions implemented on the Android Automotive platform. Bittium brings deep Android system experience to the automotive industry, from the hardware level all the way up the software stack
Market Outlook
Telecommunication and Digitalization
- In the mobile telecommunications, the demand for 5G technology development work has stabilized and the implementation of 5G is accelerating in pace. Investments in developing new features continue and the importance of software development in the 5G network development expands. This creates demand for Bittium´s R&D services. There is a wide range of frequencies allocated for the 5G technology thus creating the need to develop multiple products to cover the market and creating demand for R&D services for development of product variants. Also, the development of new devices utilizing 5G technology increases the demand for Bittium´s services.
- As the digitalization evolves, the secure IoT (Internet of Things) has become a significant development area in almost every industry. The increasing need of companies to digitalize their operations, collect data wirelessly, and transfer it to the internet and cloud services generate need for Bittium´s services and customized solutions. To this end, the market needs secure devices for both demanding industrial and leisure applications, which collect information from the sensors used by the device and create a reliable wireless connection to the Internet and cloud services. New radio systems customized to IoT are being used all over the world, and the number of digitalized devices increases continuously. Along with the 5G technology being used, there will also be new features in the IoT that enable i.e. remote control of machines. Therefore, the integration of different systems and technologies play an important role in enabling complete digitalization services. There are several learning systems and devices under development that use different kinds of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to ease and speed up the processing of large data amounts.
- Changes in the digitalization of the automotive industry and new business models and the automation of automotive operations create need for technological development. Most significant technology trends such as intelligent mobility, self-driving cars, electric cars and connectivity are guiding need for innovative software development. The share of software in cars is increasing in speed and software is becoming a major enabler and a differentiator. The use of Android™ Automotive operating system in the In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) systems is strongly entering the market. Several carmakers have announced the launch of cars with Android Automotive. Bittium´s more than a decade of experience with the Android operating system and the Google ecosystem combined with security know-how create good business opportunities for this market.
- Travel restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic have slowed down the sale of product development services. Even though the adaptation to new conditions and operating methods has gone well, the restrictions have somewhat slowed down the progress of the projects and gaining new customers.
- Possible illnesses of own personnel due to the Covid-19 could have a significant impact on Bittium´s business, especially with regard to product development services. The company began taking measures to ensure the health and safety of its personnel and to ensure business continuity as soon as the Covid-19 pandemic reached Europe in March 2020. So far, the pandemic has not yet significantly affected the health of Bittium employees.