IoT: To Be Open or To Be Closed?

I love all my Apple products, I really do! Our Apple TV was so easy to set up, and works seamlessly with my iTunes, and my iPad and iPhone all work in lovely harmony! Not to mention my old and tired, yet still perfectly happy Macbook! Yes, in 2009 I drank the Koolaid, and have not looked back. Occasionally I will try another system, like the Samsung Galaxy mini-tablet, and discard it for it’s poor user experience. But still, I do use Google apps, Google Maps being far superior to Apple’s, and Chrome is a much better browser than Safari or IE! And I’m sure that most of my mobile devices have Qualcomm’s chips in them!

But back to IoT… Apple recently announced their new IoT platform or standard, HomeKit. I suspect that like iTunes, it will be closed for just it’s own ecosystem developers and users. Google in the meantime, with the acquisition of Nest (the smart thermostat and fire alarm gadgets) now has it’s own IoT platform, which they will use for attracting developers to create cool apps for the IoT in Google’s image!

But wait, that’s not all! There are now also various consortiums being started for the IoT. One of them is based on Qualcomm’s own Alljoyn! Qualcomm decided to make it into an open source framework, now part of the Allseen Alliance and is is a project of the Linux Foundation. It has attracted quite a “who’s who” as members, such as LG, Ciscos, and most recently Microsoft. What does all this mean? Well, it means that IoT is becoming mainstream! Apple, Google, Qualcomm, Microsoft, Cisco need to sell more devices, and now that between 2013 and 2017, mobile phone penetration will rise from 61.1% to 69.4% of the global population, they need the consumers to use these devices to manage all the other devices they want us to integrate into our lives. The vision that Ericsson painted in their video not too long ago, “Social Web Of Things” is almost here.

IoT and Security – Commnexus Panel Video!

Thank you Commnexus for uploading the video from last week’s M2M SiG panel discussion on the topic of “Making M2M Secure and Economically Viable”. We had an excellent and interactive discussion with the audience and the panelists. Sunvir Gujral from Qualcomm’s Alljoyn organization did a great job as moderator. I was very fortunate to be able to bring together panelists from companies like Viasat, Verizon Wireless, Intedigital, and my friend Neeraj, the CEO of Tagnos. I wanted to get perspectives from people like Neeraj Bhavani, who is actually deploying hospital M2M solutions, Viasat’s Ian Alison, a “hacker” who knows how to break into M2M systems, Verizon’s David Prill representing the carrier perspective, and Interdigital’s Phillip Brown who is in charge of standards in M2M.

 

 

 

 

Please see the video to get a good feel for the various views, and also to see the very interactive participation with the audience! Again, thank you to Commnexus, Latham and Watkins for hosting, and all the panelists for a great event!

CTIA Enterprise 2011 quick review

Today is Friday, the day after the Fall 2011 CTIA that was held here in San Diego, and so I am writing this while it’s still fresh in mind, although I am still a bit tired.

My very first major discovery was on the very first day, Monday, after I registered, picked up my badge, and started reviewing the show program to see which companies were here, on the exhibit floor, what information tracks I would be interested in, etc. This first discovery was not who was here, but who was not! And that was Qualcomm!!! No booth, no logos, no sponsorships, no tracks dedicated to Qualcomm specifically. Pretty weird considering that San Diego is Qualcomm’s home so you would think they would support CTIA in San Diego…

The exhibit area was pretty well dominated by the M2M related “stuff” – modems, certification companies, tracking companies, integrators, and even Sprint’s big booth was very much all about M2M. Sprint has been in telemetry for a while, so they may be considered a leader in the m2m. I was told by one of their booth guys about a system on airport buses that collects and analyzes on-bus traffic of people using facial recognition software to identify race and gender as well as eye tracking to see what demographic is looking at their on-board screens that deliver ads. This is also used for security as well (duh!).

So the next steps in m2m seem to be more in-depth analytics, which was also one of the big things discussed and promoted, as that Sprint example.

Additionally, both LG and Samsung had very big booth with all sorts of connected items, from tablets and their use as enterprise/business items (airplane seats with built-in tablets), to refrigerators that have recipes on the screen built into the door!

Wireless Health had an interesting session with a panel from EMC Corp, Qualcomm Employee Health, and Blue Shield. Topic focused on how technology and incentives are used to promote better health behavior in the work place. The obvious gap, which was acknowledged when I asked the question, is the lack of real preventive steps. It’s one thing to help people fight obesity, but how about preventing them from getting there and understanding any possible predetermined factors that might contribute and how to personalize preventive capabilities.