I heard a funny comparison the other day when someone asked about the fight between two well-backed efforts to standardize IoT.  The comment compared it to “VHS vs. Beta, only on a much larger scale”.  At first glance, one might wonder….how can you compare the impact of a standardization in the Consumer video world to a (currently) much smaller market like IoT?  Actually, I think the statement doesn't go far enough.  IoT standardization may be the biggest standard created since IP…

To do my best Michael Buffer imitation….“In the Red corner, we have the Open Interconnect Consortium featuring heavyweight companies like Samsung, Intel and Dell” … “and, in the Blue Corner, we have the AllSeen Alliance with blue chip companies like Microsoft, Qualcomm and Sharp”. 

So, who wins?  In my opinion, the industry does, no matter who prevails.

The idea that we can finally start to have one common “thread” between devices from all manufacturers is a missing link to getting this industry moving forward. In short, IoT standardization will:  

* Make it much easier for consumers to have choices…
* Foster more innovation / dollars committed to R&D in our space…
* Allow for smaller players to enter into our space…
* Prevent the inevitable “finger-pointing” that we see today when you try to mix and match components for a solution…

And, let’s not forget about those two small California-based technology companies…Apple and Google.  They aren’t exactly sitting on their hands while this all is going on.  Apple, in their infinite wisdom, is trying to own the ecosystem with the launch of their upcoming Home and Health oriented solutions…and if there is a company that could pull this off, it may be our friends from Cupertino.  Who would doubt them after what they did with iTunes?

As for Google, their overpayment of Nest (see my past blog on this) is now starting to make some sense.  It seems that Nest is now being promoted as their IoT group and we are starting to see them branch out into other areas, including some recent acquisitions.

The bottom line

Finally, I can stop complaining about standardization in the IoT / M2M space….it looks like it will happen.  I do wonder if the “best” standard will actually win out (many “nerds” tell me that VHS was a much inferior technology), or if it will be the one that is most promoted/backed.  Either way, let’s make it easy for solutions to be deployed in our space….as that will add to all of our bottom lines!

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