BlackBerry to unveil Radar asset tracker at Mid-America Trucking Show

Further signaling its move into the mobile asset tracking Internet of Things market, BlackBerry will be unveiling a new product called Radar at the 2016 Mid-America Trucking Show (MATS), taking place at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Kentucky, from March 31 to April 2, 2016.
BlackBerry Radar is billed as “a turnkey solution for managing containers, trailers, and inventory with dramatically improved efficiency.”
At the Mid-America Trucking Show, BlackBerry promises to showcase Radar as “a new perspective on transport logistics” that can help truck fleet managers to run their business “with a completely integrated, comprehensive trailer management service, including a self-powered device, connectivity, and cloud-based apps”
Last November, Sandeep Chennakeshu, President of BlackBerry Technology Solutions, hinted at BlackBerry’s next major play in the Internet of Things market, a 200 mm weatherproof high-value asset tracking box with an IP67 certification and a five-year battery life.
BlackBerry Technology Solutions was created in 2014 to encompass BlackBerry’s existing IoT platform, Project Ion, along with QNX Software Systems, Certicom cryptography applications, Paratek RF antenna tuning, along with BlackBerry’s extensive portfolio platform, which consists of over 44,000 patents valued between $2 billion and $3 billion.
“It is 100 per cent our design and concept,” said Chennakeshu, speaking to New Delhi’s Indian Express. “We have patented it and will start proof of concept trials in November… I am very proud of my guys. This has never been done before, not with power of its own. When we started, the idea was to build it cheap. And I should be able to install it in less than 10 minutes.”
Citing the size of the trucking market, at 177 million trucks, Chennakeshu also implied that the asset tracking technology could be used for pretty much anything, whether “very expensive cars” or “children or police cars”.
Cormark analyst Richard Tse, referring to a presentation he saw at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, told Cantech Letter, “Based on a presentation by BlackBerry’s President of BlackBerry Technology Solutions, Sandeep Chennakeshu, it appears there’s more movement on this initiative that was originally presented in a similar forum at last year’s CES. While it’s still early, it appears BlackBerry has been able to sign on a number of large trials with potential transportation/logistics customers for its end-to-end proprietary tracking solution that would work globally.”
BlackBerry Radar promises real-time and detailed information about containers and trailers for truck fleet managers, improving asset visibility on mobile assets and reducing operational costs.
BlackBerry will be set up in the Trucking Show’s North Hall, booth #16228.

About The Author / Terry Dawes

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One thought on “BlackBerry to unveil Radar asset tracker at Mid-America Trucking Show”

Gus Ferrachi says:

March 22, 2016 at 4:55 pm

Yea sure 2-3 billion for 44k patents!!!! what are you smoking or better yet what year are you living in??? Grow up kid…BlackBerry spent $4.5 billion on 6,000 patents owned by Nortel and they have increased in value since