Tech Collaborations Gaining Momentum: FB, INTC, GOOGL

Technology is getting more central to our lives as more of our activities get on the information grid. This kills privacy true, but since our data provides the currency for new and novel experiences, it’s hard to stem this tide.

The last few years have seen rapid development of the web enabling richer cloud-based experiences. In the meantime, the need for interoperability between cloud-based offerings has led to much more collaborative efforts between companies than ever seen in the past as they race to deliver work flows, services, entertainment and so forth.

So here’s a look at the important collaborations from last week:

Facebook Sports Deals

Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) has struck a deal with Major League Baseball (MLB) to stream 20 live games, one every Friday This isn’t an exclusive deal but rather an experiment on MLB’s part, which also has a similar deal with Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) (the Twitter feed will move from Friday to Tuesday). For Facebook, it’s an opportunity to get TV-like content to its platform and thereby eat into TV ad dollars. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) , YouTube and Snap are other technology companies fighting for this kind of premium content.

“Baseball games are uniquely engaging community experiences, as the chatter and rituals in the stands are often as meaningful to fans as the action on the diamond. By distributing a live game per week on Facebook, Major League Baseball can re-imagine this social experience on a national scale,” said Dan Reed, Facebook’s Head of Global Sports Partnerships. "By distributing a live game per week on Facebook, Major League Baseball can re-imagine this social experience on a national scale," he said.

Facebook is also getting into eSports. It has agreements with five teams and is getting ready to sign on ESL as producer to publish both live and on-demand video. According to Nielsen (NYSE:NLSN) , the eSports audience is digital-first, young, male-dominated, passionate, affluent and hard to reach on traditional media. Moreover, around 51% of eSports fans are millennials, and 65% are between 13-34 years old.

Delphi Joins Intel-BMW Self-Driving Effort

The self-driving system built by the Intel-Mobileye-BMW combination has entered the next leg of development with Delphi joining as an integration partner. Delphi will make the most of its expertise in automotive electrical architecture to put the self-driving system into cars from BMW and other automakers thus facilitating its commercialization.

In addition, Delphi (NYSE:DLPH) is developing self-driving technology of its own in collaboration with Intel and Mobileye (NYSE:MBLY), which along with its radars, sensors and other differentiating applications may make it to the BMW model to launch in 2021.

BMW has said that the systems to be brought to market will have "Level 3" to full "Level 5" capabilities.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said about this non-exclusive deal with Delphi: “In less than one year the joint teams have made substantial progress to deliver a scalable platform for autonomous driving and are on the path to deliver 40 pilot cars in the second half of this year." Adding Delphi to the partnership will accelerate the introduction of autonomous vehicles from multiple players.” So there will likely be other integration partners depending on OEM customer needs.

It’s important to get to the market as soon as possible because it’s an opportunity to collect more data and the more data a self-driving effort accumulates, the better will be the machine learning process driving the effort. McKinsey & Co. reportedly predicts that car data could become a $750 billion industry by 2030.

Google Partners with Audi, Volvo

Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google is now in partnership with Volkswagen’s Audi of Germany and Geely’s Volvo of China. The partnership provides a way to get Android at the center of the car and not just in the dash (with Android Auto) for functions like navigation, streaming audio and communications services.

With the new system, "your car's built-in infotainment system could allow you to control your air conditioning, sunroof, and windows, find the nearest restaurant with Google Maps, listen to Spotify or NPR, or just ask your Google Assistant for help--even when you leave your phone behind," writes Android product manager Haris Ramic in a blog post.

The Audi Q8, a luxury sport utility vehicle (SUV) that will be built around the new Android will ship next year.

Volvo will take a couple of years to get new cars built around Android on the road. Apps for the Android of cars can reportedly be developed by Google, Volvo or third parties.

Google isn’t directly grabbing your data in this case, but is instead taking a persuasive approach. So people using things like Maps can choose to share data if they want better services.

Intel Inside Amazon Echo Show

It’s been reported that the new Amazon Echo Show, with its touch screen and camera are powered by Intel’s (NASDAQ:INTC) Atom x5-Z8350 that was originally designed for tablets. This news isn’t a big deal for either Amazon or Intel, but it does mean that Intel is serious about the IoT segment and perhaps won’t fall as far back in the race as it did with tablets. Also, since Amazon has something of a first mover advantage in the space, a long term alliance with the online retailer could be advantageous for Intel.

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