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When I say “IoT” what do you think?
For some people, it’s “Huh?” For others it’s their Alexa, smart TV or any number of other electronic toys.
In general, IoT refers to that category of electronic device that we use but that we don’t sit (or stand) in front of, like we do with our PC or our phone. Google Home, Alexas, smart door locks, even smart TVs and many other devices fit into this category.
There currently are around 7 billion connected IoT devices and predictions estimate that number will grow to 22 billion by 2025.
Up until now, one of the challenges with IoT devices is that there are no standards. This means that, for the most part, some smart device from vendor A will not talk to or be managed by devices or controllers made by vendor B. Examples include Apple vs. Amazon or Google vs. Apple. Some of the smaller brands may be able to talk to a couple of brands of devices, but not very many.
From a consumer standpoint, that makes IoT less desirable, but the Amazon’s and Apple’s of the world are used to total global domination, so that is their go-to strategy.
Apparently, the big three – Apple, Google and Amazon – along with some others, have decided that it is in their collective best to define some standards. Think about what would have happened if you went into your coffee shop and wanted to connect to their WiFi and there was a sign that says “WiFi – Only Works with Apple products”.
But unlike WiFi, which is a very secretive standard that only the chosen few are allowed to even see, never mind contribute to, this new “Connected Home over IP” standard is going to be open source and royalty free.
The standard is going to be developed through the Zigbee Alliance, a group of manufacturers and retailers like Samsung and IKEA who have an interest in selling more products.
A draft version of the standard should be released in 2020, which means, maybe, possibly, you will be able to set your Nest thermostat (Google) using your Alexa (Amazon) in 2021.
While we have no clue how this frankenstein will actually come together, what we do know is that, you will likely have to throw away everything that you have bought and start over.
The reason this is LIKELY true (no one knows) is that all of these IoT devices were designed for minimal cost hence they are not very upgradable and if this new spec requires changes to the hardware (after all, Amazon, Apple and Google do not use the same hardware), someone is going to have to give and each player is going to want that to be the other guy.
The other thing, supposedly, is that this new standard will require or allow each individual device to connect directly to the Internet without a local hub. While this is more flexible, it is also a security nightmare since, I am sure, these new devices will be very secure and have no bugs at all.
So here are my thoughts and suggestions:
For more information, check the PR releases from your favorite vendor or check out the website above.