Random Thoughts from the Thinking Cap: 2014

Monday, April 28, 2014

Interoperability and IoT: Standardization & Open API Key

Internet is considered as one of the most important and powerful creations in all of human history. Internet of Things (IoT), also known as Web of Things or Internet of Objects, represents the next wave of evolution that is promising to connect every object on earth; living as well as non-living. With this kind of a connectivity established, there is a possibility of genera &ing and transmitting real-time data from all kind of objects -- homogeneous as well as heterogeneous, conveying all kind of statuses depending on the object to which this data is attributed to.
The data that is generated will pose a huge challenge, in terms of its assimilation and the derivation of the right context and meaning, by the receiving entities. There is, thus, a huge possibility of fragmentation in terms of technologies used to process this data. Moreover, numerous services and applications are bound to be developed to control and operate the connected things/objects. Hence, there is a strong need for a generic framework, which removes the fragmentation in technologies and provides for interoperability and ubiquitous access.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Internet of Things: A Myriad of Possibilities

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the next wave of technology evolution that promises to connect every object on earth -- living as well as non-living. IoT conceptualizes the vision of a future internet, where the physical objects from a car to a dish-washer, a chair to light bulb, are all connected and would take an active part in the internet, exchanging information about themselves, as well as about their surroundings. This will give immediate access to information about the physical world and the objects, leading to innovative services and solutions and leading to an increase in efficiency and productivity. The opportunities offered are huge and a few scenarios, and usecases, that we can foresee in such an interconnected world are noted.

The Commoditization of the Smartphone

Smartphones have seen a tremendous growth on their popularity ever since the introduction of Apple’s iPhone in T-Mobile’s network sometime back in 2007. The release of Google’s Android also did influence this growth in a very positive way. Android provided an open source & its associated community and also a readily available platform which paved the way for new entrants to the Smartphone OEM list.
Android, being an open source, provided the advantages of a very short development time and a quicker time-to-market advantage and these factors mainly attracted the new entrants into the Smartphone OEM business. Currently, if we look at the market share for the Smartphones held by the local OEMs, in the Chinese and Indian markets, we see these local players gradually increasing their share over the last couple of years.

Will Monetization Match Mobile Internet's Growth?

The last couple of decades has seen a great push towards the democratization of the internet and thereby the availability of the online information to all. There were great strides taken towards an open gardens approach and the closed wall approach was slowly but surely crumbling.
The mobile internet traffic as well has seen a tremendous growth curve over the period of last 5 years. With the launch of iPhone in T-Mobile’s stores in 2007, the Smartphone market has almost grown exponentially. The growth, which was for the initial couple of years concentrated in the US and European markets, has gradually spread across to the other countries.