IoT is happening, and it is being driven by mobile
HONG KONG – Qualcomm hasn’t been shy about sharing its aggressive approach in helping enable the “internet of things.” In fact, IoT, alongside processors, networks and devices, was a major focus of discussion at this year’s Qualcomm 4G/5G Summit.
“There is no doubt we are on the way to billions of connections, and there is also no doubt that mobile tech will drive the IoT,” said Raj Talluri, SVP of product management at Qualcomm, in a keynote session titled “New Opportunities in the IoT.”
Mobile is now the largest platform in the world and has driven economies of scale and tech adoption, computing, and sensing, allowing devices to take advantage of IoT-based applications, according to Talluri. He said it is a combination of edge and cloud computing along with a high-speed interconnection between the two that will speed up the rate of IoT.
When addressing major concerns on the state of the technology revolution, like “How are we doing with IoT?” and “Is the business real?” Talluri reassured the audience, claiming Qualcomm has shipped over 1 billion IoT-ready devices.
The four IoT industries Qualcomm is involved in
The mobile processor manufacturer puts the internet of things into four “buckets:”
- smart body;
- smart home;
- smart cities; and
- smart transportation.
Because people do not upgrade their homes all at one time, the smart home of the future will be built one purchase at a time, according to Talluri. But an important problem to be solved is how to make sure all new devices play nice, connect seamlessly and work well. It is one area that Qualcomm is working hard to figure out. Talluri reassured skeptics by taking a historical look at technology incompatibility, citing similar problem with web browsers. People used to worry about different video formats and the potential inability to use them across different web browsers. The internet of things incompatibility will be solved in a similar way to those concerns of old, he said.
Another challenge is helping manufacturers with different levels of technology expertise go to market and intelligently sell their product. Qualcomm works with a new set of customers with new requirements and completely different levels of expertise.
“An appliance manufacturer comes to us and says ‘We bend metal in a pretty way, we don’t know connectivity.’ Qualcomm has responded to this by doing three things: creating a portfolio of products, platforms and collaborations.
The company has created more and more apps that use mobile technology to make different IoT products. It has more than 25 platforms across different use cases, so less-technical companies ,like Fossil and Michael Kors, can launch products without having to build their own IoT, allowing them to focus on what they do best – designing, marketing, selling to their audience, etc.
