BLACKBERRY UNVEILS NEW SECURE SMART- CITY SERVICE BlackBerry Inc. is making a play to integrate itself into smart cities and vehicles. The Waterloo, Ont.-based technology company announced that it has built a new service to provide infrastructure for vehicles and traffic lights to exchange information securely. BlackBerry will waive the service fees for the product for automakers and public offices involved in smart city and connected vehicle pilots because it says the offering is nec- essary to ensure users can trust the validity of information received from other systems. The service will first be used in conjunction with Invest Ottawa, which will use it for a 16-kilometre road autonomous vehicle test track resembling a miniature city, complete with pavement markings, traffic lights, stop signs and pedestri- an crosswalks.
WALMART UPS THE ANTI ON BATTLE WITH AMAZON
The U.S. retail giant, Walmart bought India’s largest online retailer Flipkart in May 2018, looking to take advantage of both its technical expertise in e-commerce and the burgeoning Indian middle class.
But when news of the deal broke back in May investors have expressed concern that, outside India, Flipkart was struggling to compete with Amazon’s dominance and had a long way to go before becoming profitable.
The cash outflow from Flipkart’s business also ate into Walmart’s profits for the end of 2018 as well as dampening its earnings outlook for 2019.
The Indian e-commerce market as a whole is forecasted to quadruple to $200 billion dollars in the next eight years, and by 2034 it’s predicted to surpass the U.S. as the second largest e-commerce market in the world, so this is a good investment for Walmart in the long run and crucial to the continuing health of his company and its global ambitions.
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