European IoT Startup Pycom Named Cool Vendor in Gartner Internet of Things Report

London, UK, June 5, 2017 (Newswire.com) - Anyone who has ever been involved with Gartner Inc. will know that ‘Cool Vendor’ status cannot be bought for love or money, and that only the most forward-thinking companies ever make it to the Cool Vendor research. Pycom is proud that it has now joined the likes of partners such as Adafruit (named in 2015), Espressif (named in 2016) and a whole host of other cool companies.

Fred de Haro, Pycom’s CEO, said, when learning of the report: “It’s a fantastic achievement. A testimony to all the hard work everyone at Pycom has put into making the portfolio of products and solutions happen in record time. Thinking back at this time last year when we were knee-deep in first LoPy product development, it’s just amazing to think that Pycom is now a recognisable ‘Cool’ brand in IoT. It is also clear that we couldn’t have come this far without the support of our community of developers and 12,000 Enterprise customers in 82 countries who have been patient and eagerly contributing great input along the way.”

It is understood that there’s a formal process for nominating Cool Vendors within Gartner. In January each year, all Gartner analysts are asked to put forward nominations for up-and-coming tech companies who they consider the most disruptive in their sector. Gartner says of the research that “Cool Vendors in this research each provide unique technologies that can enable new business models with minimal investment.”

Why is Pycom is cool? The report states that among others, Pycom provides a: “wide range of wireless solutions” that “is unusual in such a low-cost environment, and the toolset makes the solutions readily accessible in a desktop environment. Furthermore, the MicroPython programming language can deliver superior productivity than development in C or the use of Arduino scripts.” In addition, the report highlights that “Pycom provides inexpensive OEM modules alongside prototype-friendly, breadboard-compatible development boards with the same capabilities and identical firmware. This combination takes enterprise customers from working prototypes into mass production with very little (if any) design modification.”

The report also lists a couple of challenges, notably ‘margin on hardware’ and reliance on ‘distribution channels.’

In a statement today, Pycom’s Chief Operating Officer, Bettina Rubek Slater, said: “We share the same challenges as all hardware companies. Manufacturing is cash intensive, but while price pressures may be present, we seem to have hit a sweet spot where Pycom already has a profitable business while giving each developer a full IoT stack, including multi-network hardware, network access and middleware, for less than €30. We take the rapid growth of our developer community as an indication that we have the right balance of price versus value. And, with the recent nominations including the TechCrunch-sponsored TheEuropas as “Hottest IoT Tech Company,” we think that the value of the what we bring and our achievements in just 17 months is becoming accepted among the IoT industry stakeholders.”  

A last section in the report lists answers to “Who should care?” about the findings, stating that: “CIOs wanting low-cost IoT components with a broad range of wireless options should be looking at Pycom as a development platform, and potentially for production. The ability to develop using breadboard-friendly components and deploy using (electrically) identical modules will have a significant impact on costs — both in the initial outlay and ongoing development.”

Pycom is still completing its ‘Full IoT Stack’ offering with a launch of further hardware products over the summer as well as the free Pybytes middleware.

Further information

The Gartner ‘IoT Thingification 2017’ report can be found on the Gartner Portal, where it may be purchased or accessed with Gartner account login: https://www.gartner.com/document/code/326629

About the Gartner Authors:

Research Director Amy Teng
​VP & Gartner Fellow Martin Reynolds
Research Director Bill Ray

About Pycom

Pycom enables and Inspires everyone to be an inventor. Often referred to as an IoT Rebel, Pycom is unapologetic in challenging conventional IoT. Since launching in January 2016, Pycom’s gone on to introduce an LPWAN-based full-stack IoT portfolio consisting of 5 ESP32 based development boards — WiPy, LoPy, SiPy, GPy and FiPy ​— and a matching set of OEM modules, all of which offer multi-network, including LoRa, Sigfox and LTE-M (NB-IoT/CAT-M1), low energy IoT deployments at the edge of the network. Pycom’s common MicroPython firmware stack is open source and it’s all supported by a full IoT stack including LPWAN network access through a multitude of network partners, the Pymakr Suite of IDE Plugins and the Pymate Mobile App, as well as Pybytes, the free middleware platform and desktop application (coming June 2017).

Pycom aims to disrupt the IoT industry by daring to deliver IoT solutions differently, and this encourages the company’s rapidly growing global community of hobbyist and professional developers — all of whom are looking to deploy great-value, enterprise-grade connected solutions — to #GOINVENT.

Web: www.pycom.io
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Source: Pycom