From AI-capable endpoint devices to autonomous systems, IoT developers are building a diverse ecosystem of products and services, only set to grow. The number of IoT connected devices worldwide is projected to reach over 15 billion in 2023. MicKinsey estimates its market value will grow from $1.5 trillion today to $12.6 trillion by the end of the decade.
As the complexity of IoT use case increases, so does the cost of developing and maintaining software in complex and distributed deployments. To reduce the cost and time-to-market for developers, it is critical to enable software re-use and portability across devices wherever possible. It’s therefore important that we standardize the foundational building blocks of IoT, removing redundancies and friction, and creating opportunity for innovation.
However, for now, the space remains fragmented; a challenge with a huge variety of IoT devices across a range of markets. IoT device makers and developers need to manually port their software for every new product and every new market, limiting their ability to invest elsewhere, resulting in a limited return on investment because companies are simply unable to scale.
The good news is that industry players large and small are working together to create a consistent set of standards to address this fragmentation. This means 2023 will see the industry making major steps towards achieving the right balance of standardization and differentiation, allowing IoT developers to leverage existing software without worrying about compatibility issues, instead spending time and resources innovating their products and applications.
Standardizing foundational tasks to enable IoT scale
Over the last few years, we have been working closely with the IoT ecosystem to ensure developers can take advantage of the software and services they have already invested in across a broad range of platforms.
For example, one of the biggest barriers to design efficiency can be fragmentation around hardware and firmware development. Arm SystemReady is a compliance certification program that aims to eliminate that fragmentation and make design faster and more efficient, providing an increase in operating system support and workload portability across a broad set of hardware platforms. The program reduces the total cost of software ownership, support and maintenance for developers and users of those platforms.
We are also focused on simplifying security with PSA Certified which is making complex security functions accessible. Using standard components, PSA Certified silicon and PSA Functional APIs, can be leveraged, creating a space where all trusted functions can happen. Most recently, the new PSA Certified Firmware Update API addresses the long-standing challenge of keeping IoT devices up-to-date and secure throughout the full life cycle.
This year we will continue to look at ways we can help address the fundamental challenges developers face at the foundational hardware, software, and security layers of the IoT stack.
Industry standards will enable new opportunities
Last year saw the IoT industry making steps towards eliminating fragmentation and providing developers with the tools they need to accelerate IoT development, but 2023 could be a major turning point for achieving the right balance of standardization and differentiation thanks to new industry wide standard and certification programs.
In late 2022, the Connectivity Standards Alliance – with whom Arm has worked closely for many years – released the Matter 1.0 standard and certification program. Matter aims to be a universal IoT standard focused on the application layer, with the goal of simplifying development for manufacturers and increasing compatibility of diverse IoT devices for consumers.
We’re working closely with the Alliance to make sure that the Arm ecosystem is ready to support product developers in building the next generation of IoT devices. One current project is exploring the integration of Arm Virtual Hardware into the Matter infrastructure, so OEMs can access a virtual test environment for the wide ecosystem of Arm-based IoT computing platforms.
The combination of trusted foundational technologies and frameworks from Arm and standards such as Matter, gives developers the freedom to innovate at the application layer.
Some may suggest that the implementation of standards could lead to stifled innovation, but looking at the IoT landscape, and the opportunity presented to IoT OEMs and developers, it’s clear this couldn’t be further from the truth. Standardization is the route to ensure a strong, secure and proven foundation on which developers can build with confidence, driving greater innovation and moving the industry forward.
