Since IBM powered up IoT, the expression "The Internet of things" has become a trending term in the technical media. In layman's terms, what The Internet of Things means is fitting regular electronics (car computers, sports bands, thermostats) with chips and sensors and connecting them to the Internet.
ARM, the manufacturer that designs an important share of the chips in smartphones and tablets has just sealed a deal with IBM that should upgrade the IoT to new levels. What this means is that data from billions of Internet connected electronics will be stored and analyzed on IBM's cloud service.
ARM is already a strong global player in this market: its mBed project means a production of around 4 billion chips per year for Internet of Things tools and gadgets. The purpose of mBed, however, is more significant than IoT chips.
How the teamwork between ARM and IBM functions? ARM is integrating IBM's cloud into the core of the mBed system. As a result, users that have ARM chips in their devices can access IBM's BlueMix cloud for storage and analysis of the data. This will become even easier once IBM releases the dedicated cloud, IoT for Electronics, which is supposed to do real-time analysis. It is no small challenge to extract significant and relevant output out of billions of bits of information on the spot, and IBM has the resources and manpower to offer that to its clients.
IMB and other software producers are joining efforts on multiple levels: to create an IoT operating system, to build tools that programmers need to write apps, and to set up the vigorous infrastructure of computer servers where the things can connect. Further efforts are made to make sure the tech cloud is user friendly and the immense amount of data can be safely stored, tracked and analyzed.
An example is TP Vision, producers of the smart-TVs from Philips. It uses the IBM IoT service to provide television content in more than 30 countries.
"This provides us the opportunity to continuously balance costs with increased customer experience. Lastly, we have eliminated the need to set up hardware within traditional IT infrastructure - allowing a drastic reduction in provisioning time," - Marc Harmsen - Global Marketing Lead and Product Manager EMEA Philips Television at TP Vision says.
According to an IDC-delivered research, the market is projected to increase to $1.7 trillion in the next five years. That's an estimated increase of nearly 300 percent, based on the $655.8 billion worth from 2014.
Whether an oil rig needs maintenance, the room temperature needs adjustment or you are exhausting yourself during your workout, the sensors will make sure you know it on time and take action.
