While Google puts its eggs into newly acquired Nest and Apple continues its efforts to embed itself into every machine and gadget, Microsoft has aligned itself with 50 other tech companies that have been trying to develop a universal standard that networks everything.
Some of the company that have joined the now 51-member-strong, AllSeen Alliance in the push of the Internet of Things include Qualcomm, Cisco, Haier, LG, Sharp, Panasonic, D-Link and Symantec.
Kevin Dallas, general manager of Microsoft's Operating Systems Group, said his company believes the Internet of Things isn't a futurist idea, because cloud connectivity and device networking was already well beyond its infancy and has been making tremendous strides.
"In order to make the Internet of Things truly successful, there are challenges to be addressed in securely connecting and managing all these devices and interacting with cloud services and machine-generated data," Dallas said. "We believe the AllSeen Alliance is a very important effort to collaboratively address these challenges, and we're excited about joining the initiative."
Born in December of 2013, the AllSeen Alliance's mission has been to develop its AllJoyn framework so that all applications and devices can speak a common language - devices from different manufactures can discover one another and exchange information, while still bearing proprietary elements created by their producers.
Apple, however, would like for all devices to communicate via some for or iOS, while Google thinks Android's vocabulary is up to the task of networking every device.
Apple has been preparing Homekit for deployment with iOS 8, due Fall 2014, which will use the company's MFi standard to network household devices, and has already established itself in the auto world. Meanwhile, Google has battled back with I/O 2014 announcement of Google Auto and its January 2014 acquisition of Nest, a producer of smart thermostats and intelligent smoke detectors that will likely use the Android OS network other home devices.
While welcoming Microsoft to the consortium in a July 2 press release, Liat Ben-Zur, chairman of the AllSeen Alliance, argued against Google and Apple's lone-wolf approaches to developing an Internet of Everything.
"No single company can accomplish the level of interoperability required to support the Internet of Everything in everyday, real-life scenarios," said Ben-Zur. "Microsoft's strong presence in the home via computers, tablets, phones, gaming platforms and their strength in the consumer, enterprise, education, industrial automotive sectors, uniquely enables them to accelerate the adoption of the AllSeen Alliance's AllJoyn open source code across a very wide swath of products and verticals."
