It's no secret that "Internet of Things" is generating an enormous amount of hype and buzz right now. It's also clearly driving a lot of activity across the wireless and technology sector.
After all, Cisco has made the Internet of Things one of the company's primary talking points for months now. Separately, Qualcomm continues to push its AllJoyn technology as "a common language for the Internet of Everything." More recently, Intel began discussing the Internet of Things during its press events at the Consumer Electronics Show. And just this week ZDNet reported Microsoft is building a team to focus on the Internet of Things.
And all this activity follows predictions of massive growth for the IoT sector. For example, Cisco predicts some 25 billion things will be connected by 2015, a number that will grow to 50 billion by 2020. Separately, Gartner predicts the IoT space will grow to 26 billion units installed in 2020, representing an almost 30-fold increase from 2009.
But where exactly will the wireless industry--including carriers and smartphone vendors--play in the Internet of Things? Will companies like Apple eventually solve the market's problems, or will carriers like AT&T bring their network expertise to bear to connect everyday objects like appliances and cars?
This is the topic I will be targeting during my upcoming FierceWireless Executive Luncheon panel event, "The Internet of Things: Where will the wireless industry play?" at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain. On Feb. 25, 12:45 p.m. to 2 p.m., I'll be joined by a panel of top-flight Internet of Things executives including:
- Glenn Lurie, President—Emerging Enterprises and Partnerships, AT&T;
- Matt Thompson, GM, Developer Evangelism, Microsoft;
- Stan Boland, CEO, Neul;
- Rob Chandhok, SVP, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. President, Qualcomm Interactive Platforms; and
- John Horn, President, RacoWireless.
We'll dive deep into the Internet of things from a variety of perspectives.
Also, if you're interested in the network side of things, I encourage you to check out my boss Sue Marek's companion panel, "The road to LTE Advanced" on Feb. 26, 12:45 p.m. to 2 p.m.
I hope to see you there! --Mike | +MikeDano | @mikeddano