Alliances Improve the IoT Marketplace

The Internet of Things (IoT) is not the same as the Internet. IoT is not just a variation of the Internet. The Internet is the connection backbone of IoT.

If a lone individual posts a blog, like this article, or webpage on the Internet, they can exist happily whether or not anyone else visits the page. The infrastructure of the web page, the server and the FTTP connection are already well established.

On the other hand, the IoT industry is still emerging. If a thermostat includes a semiconductor and Internet connection, it can only be useful if another person or machine has the software and capacity to read the information. That means that the different companies have to work together to create alliances to make sure everyone is on the same page. There isn’t one company that can provide all the pieces in an IoT solution, and therefore alliances are required.

Alliances are key to technological improvement. In the old days, VCRs were either the Betamax or VHS standard. Machines were built to play tapes. More recently, all web browsers are created with the ability to read HTML code.  These agreements and standards did not come naturally.  They came through incremental improvements and painstaking alliances between companies.  Once the standard is set, the ecosystem can quickly grow and improve around a shared technology.

The same thing is now happening in the IoT industry. Billions of devices now have connections to the Internet. However, they cannot always communicate with one another because they use different data standards. Alliances create partnerships and improve the overall marketplace.

Besides the individual companies’ partners, trade associations and standards boards must exist to create the standards needed to make IoT a part of everyday life.

 

 

 

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