IoT brings together various faculties of digital technology. Therefore, a vast variety of organisations are offering solutions here. This list is an attempt to put together the Who’s Who of this emerging industry, and provide a glimpse of what they are offering…
TIP: If your firm is offering IoT-related solutions, and you want it to be featured here, please shoot us an email at iot@efy.in
1. Apple
Enabler: Electronics Hardware, Development Kits
Apple has an emerging ecosystem of Internet of things (IoT) services, the popular ones being its platforms for smart home, smart health and connected car.
- Apple announced its framework for home automation, HomeKit, in 2014. The solution makes it easier for users to control all their smart home accessories from various manufacturers (such as Philips Hue lights, Wink lights, speakers, thermostats, detectors, cameras, locks, sensors, etc) using an iPhone/iPad. User can send voice commands such as turning on/off lights, set alarm and view doorbell cams over Siri interface.
- In 2016, Apple announced the new Home app for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. The app helps users to control all HomeKit-enabled devices without Siri. They can even activate a series of devices with a single command.
- For connected cars, CarPlay is an Apple standard that enables a car radio or head unit to be a display and controller for an iPhone. Already, a total of 40 automakers including Audi and Honda are selling over 100 models with CarPlay connectivity.
- Apple also offers HealthKit, an application for iOS 8 and iOS 9 to help users keep better track of their personal health and fitness data using an easy-to-access dashboard. HealthKit also allows health and fitness apps to share data to centralise everything.
- Apple also rolled out a developer tool called ResearchKit that aims to turn iPhones into a medical research tool and battle diseases. To broaden its reach, Apple also open-sourced the code.
- Apple also offers Apple Pay, a mobile payment and digital wallet service that lets users make payments using iPhones and iPads.
IoT Page: http://www.apple.com/
HQ: California, USA
2. ARM
Enabler: Electronics Hardware, Development Tools
ARM offers a diverse range of processor IPs to address the requirements for the plethora of IoT and wearable devices. In July 2016, Japan’s SoftBank acquired ARM to capitalise on the growth of the Internet of things.
• The firm’s processor technology is deployed in countless innovative wearable devices from Fitbit, Xiaomi, TomTom, Sony, Samsung, Motorola, and many more.
• An example of the firm’s Cortex-M3-based MCU solution is STMicroelectronics’ STM32 MCU family, which has been used in wearable products such as the Fitbit Flex activity tracker and the Pebble smartwatch.
• To speed the creation and deployment of IoT solutions, the firm offers the “mbed IoT Device Platform” which is based on its power-efficient ARM Cortex-M MCUs, making it popular for developing smartwatches and wearables.
• ARM also offers mbed Wearable Reference Design with open-source resources for implementing activity trackers, wearable healthcare devices, smart watches, wrist-mounted communication devices, heart rate or vital signs monitors, etc.
• ARM offers software development tools like RealView, DS-5 and Keil.
• In 2015, ARM bought Israeli IoT security firm Sansa Security to expand its offer hardware and software-based security capabilities for protection for sensitive data and content on any connected device.
• In May 2016, ARM acquired a computer vision firm Apical to accelerate its growth into IoT applications such as connected vehicles, smart cities and security systems.
IoT Page: https://www.arm.com/ markets/internet-of-things- iot.php
HQ: England, UK
