IoTComplete

This Internet of Things (IoT)…Well, It’s Just Amazing!

By www.IoTComplete.com’s Jimmy Schaeffler

(May 12, 2015, San Francisco, CA) –

San Francisco’s multi-storied Moscone Center West opened its doors, and primed its escalators, for hundreds of visibly charged techies May 12-13, for the 2d annual IoTWorld conference and exhibition located a few blocks south of Market Street (See, http://iotworldevent.com/main-conference-program/). The two photos at right and below help describe the author’s day in The City, one wearing his first set of Virtual Reality Eyewear, the other cajoling with a good friend and former college roommate of the author’s two sons.

Connected Mobility

These IoT World highlights include the author’s focus for the visit, which was as the conference chairman for another Iot-related event, scheduled for the Santa Clara Convention Center (SCCC), October 26-29, 2015, called Connected Mobility 2015: The Future of Transportation, where mostly car and truck vehicle-change is headed (See, www.connectedmobilityusa.com).

Thus, displays and sessions that featured eMobility (e.g., the future of transportation in the realm of energy and efficiency…think Tesla), as well as iMobility (think interconnectivity and the Internet…something much closer to IoT), were visited and tracked.

Key companies contacted in this “connected mobility” realm included Samsung, Honda, Bosch, Toshiba, Intel, Innova Uev, Epson/nGrain, Silicon Labs, Frontline, and the investment banker, Stifel Nicholas.

Opening General Session

Main IotWorld 2015 SFO event sponsors included IBM, Microsoft, Bosch, Dell and Intel.

The opening general session Tuesday, May 12, was specifically sponsored by Samsung, and featured several vendors with whom Samsung is now collaborating. Some highlights include:

• San Francisco City Chief Information Officer (CIO), Miguel Gamino, outlined the City By The Bay’s steps toward embracing the Internet of Things. This is important because municipalities typically own and control rights of way. This is true not just for auto and other vehicles, but also for things like electricity. Mr. Gamino mentioned an SFO city goal of offering Internet connectivity on every wall plate in every home within the San Francisco footprint. See slide below for guidance.
• Samsung’s CSO, Young Sohn, said that for his $200/year sized company, preceded by the personal computer, the Internet, and the Smart Phone, Samsung sees today as what it calls the “Internet of Things” era. Via Samsung’s newly-introduced Artik platform, Samsung described optimizing the Internet of Things to help people make better use of information to save and make more money, and to make things we do and items we use safer and more efficient. Specific IoT global challenges included a) shifting demographics (e.g., an aging population in countries like Japan; b) urbanization (e.g., with projections that very soon half the world’s population will reside in urban locales), and c) the “obvious” effects of climate change.
• Other Samsung-affiliated companies introduced as core to the Samsung IoT commitment were Boogio, Massimo Banzi, Temboo, and Weenat.

 

 

Exhibits, Including Epson and NGrain

Once on the Exhibit floor, I was introduced to my first serious demonstration of virtual reality eyewear, this time in the form of glasses with picture-in-screen for use in technical learning, developed by a company called NGrain (which is a partner of Epson). See, http://www.ngrain.com/.The eyewear and the demo were impressive, and it is hard to see how such a device cannot be effective being involved in quite a few business and educational environments. See the photos below, for exhibits of both this eyewear device and a close family friend who also attended the IotWorld event on behalf of his San Francisco-based new tech company.

Indeed, the more I see…the more I like: This Internet of Things (IoT) stuff, well, it’s just amazing!

Can IoT Play A Role In Radio- and TV-Related Devices, Usage, Spectrum, and The Like?

By IoTComplete’s Jimmy Schaeffler

(March 2, 2015; Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA)

For the past several decades, TV has been the center of my professional life. Specifically, as it relates to IoTComplete.com’s sister company, The Carmel Group (www.carmelgroup.com), it got its start 20 years ago assisting companies that wished to transition from a broadcast and cable world, to that including a satellite-telco pay TV video component. Today The Carmel Group’s transition includes a “new media” world (e.g., a new video world of broadband, streaming media, and Over-The-Top (OTT) content opportunities).

The Carmel Group’s IoTComplete.com is today reaching out to all forms of spectrum-based technology – including audio and video providers – to assist them in their transition to a world where embedded sensors in and on devices, measure and transmit data for analysis, reporting, and other uses, to a computer server that can serve that processing and calculation chore globally. The goal is to improve audio- and video-related efficiencies, pricing, revenues, and safety.

Telecom Play

This begs the question: Just what is the opportunity of the Internet of Things to become involved in tomorrow’s worlds of audio and video and data distribution? Actually, the answer is simple: The opportunity is…and I’m trying to avoid hyperbole here…substantial.

Which begs the next question: Why?

IoT + Video Events

Yet before tackling that question of Why IoT and Audio/Video have a future life together, readers are notified that the author will be conducting two events in the months ahead that will deal with this topic and question, and give them a chance to observe it firsthand.

First on the calendar for Tax Day, Wednesday, April 15, 2015, at the National Association of Broadcasters’ NAB 2015 Show in Las Vegas, Room S-222, is a Super Session entitled “Broadband and The Internet of Things: Realities and Myths.” Joining Mr. Schaeffler on stage as a panelist and commentator will be former Republican FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, Esq. Other panelists include XG Technology CEO, George Schmitt; Google’s Director of Smart Connected Vehicles, Andreas Mai; and Paul Donahue, Chairman of the Southern CA-based tech firm, MelRok, and co-founder of HD Radio. MelRock is a provider of a patented Universal Internet of Things platform for energy and media. The website link that describes this NAB 2015 event in deeper detail is http://nab15.mapyourshow.com/6_0/sessions/session-details.cfm?ScheduleID=141.

The second event dealing with the Internet of Things is the national cable show, rebranded in 2015 as INTX 2015, in Chicago, IL, May 5-7. The author is helping NCTA bring a super-connected IoT vehicle to the INTX Exhibition floor for display all days of the show, and a general keynote to the company that brings that vehicle (Note: if there is a vehicle company that has impressive eMobility and/or iMobility vehicle displays, and would like to entertain a general session keynote address at INTX 2015, please contact me at the email in the Contacts + Feedback page of the www.IoTComplete.com website).

IoT and the FCC

The Internet of Things also ties in nicely with the growth and developments in and expansion of broadband across the world, and especially across rural America. Deemed a basic right by many, a robust and reliable Internet connection, by landline, wireless, or even satellite, has grown fundamentally important to a decent quality of life in our country today.

Once that connection is established, basic data delivery is important for Internet of Things purposes, such as that sensor tacked on to the inside of a farm fuel tank, telling the petroleum supplier automatically, daily, and without human effort, when a truck should roll to refuel that tank and keep that farm running. As opposed to sending a worker out in to minus degree weather to manually check that measurement, the IoT does it cheaper, it is more efficient, and it is safer. As more concern arises about the security and safety of everything, the connection might well be used to send a live audio, but increasingly a live video, of the contents of that tank….which is on tiny among many such examples of where data, audio, and video will collaborate with the Internet of Things!

It is the job main of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to help the United States make best use of the spectrum that is required for these purposes. Spectrum management is in its early stages today as it relates to the Internet of Things. Along the line, themes of localism, diversity, and competition prevail among many FCC employees.

McDowell + IoT

Former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, Esq. is a partner with the law firm of Wiley Rein in Washington, DC. At a Satellite Broadcasting & Communications Assn. Leadership Luncheon organized and moderated by the author during the 2015 CES in Las Vegas, one question bore down on the idea of the Internet of Things and the future of video distribution. Mr. McDowell opined that with IoT uses such as movies we will watch via devices implanted inside our eyeballs 1) there will be privacy concerns, 2) totalitarian regimes will hate it, and 3) consumers will be greatly inspired by it. Using the ultimate metaphor, McDowell likened the Internet to Things to “…something like fire (For the good and bad)…it can warm you and cook your food, but also it can burn down your teepee.” It will also be fascinating to see how the current FCC folks intermingle that localism, diversity, and competition with the Internet of Things.

Want More?

As noted above, between now and June, two additional events will tackle the idea of video providers learning how to use this new “fire,” called the Internet of Things. We’ll see you at NAB 2015 in Las Vegas April 15, then we’ll see you at INTX 2015 in Chicago May 5-7.

A Sampling of Some Big and Small Participants In The Internet of Things

(February 9, 2015; Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA)

by IoTComplete’s Jimmy Schaeffler

The Internet of Things (IoT) has created a lot of interest from some quite important people and companies. These range from the tiniest single entrepreneur, to the hugest and biggest companies of them all, e.g., those such as Cisco and Apple. From that pool, IoTComplete here offers up an eclectic, yet fairly representative, grouping below of various IoT players, intended to get our IoT reader newcomers a bit more comfortable with who’s in and who’s doing what.

Sample Silos

A handful of industry types jump to the forefront when one begins describing groups and types of businesses that have or will naturally gravitate toward early and eager implementation of the Internet of Things. Note that the following listing is far from complete, nor is it intended to be so. Rather, it is just a great sampling of some great IoT industry sub-sectors, all of which are expected to lead the way toward IoT becoming significantly more efficient, cost-effective, and valuable to human beings and their endeavors.

These “IoT Stakeholders,” let’s call them, include 1) the Smart Home, 2) Vehicles, 3) Health, 4) Industrial, and 5) Cities.

• Smart Home: Within the Smart Home of The Future (which in many aspects is already here), lights; heating and cooling; movement in, out, and around the home (also known as security and privacy), in the form of cameras, floor sensors, and motion detectors; and audio and video delivery and creation, are part of the everyday future of tomorrow. Key companies include Google/Nest, AT&T, Arris, Charter, Cisco, Apple, LG, Samsung, GE, Kwikset, and Magnavox.
• Vehicles: Also known as “Telematics,” the Internet of Things in today’s and tomorrow’s moving cycles and bikes, trucks of all sizes, and every available automobile (from built in IoT functionality, to that added to existing vehicles in the aftermarket phase), is being embraced as eMobility (focused on energy and efficiency and electrical sues) and iMobility (focused on inter-connectivity and how the Internet is so critical to the future of transportation) more and more rule the day. Key entities involved include governments and the big auto manufacturers/Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) — such as Arynga, Jaguar/Landrover, GM, BMW, Nissan, Kia, and Audi/VW — and other random suppliers, such as Expedia, Baron, Inrix, IBM, and Panasonic.
• Health: Wristwatch-like arms bands that measure human vital signs and other information is one of the most obvious and earlier examples in this field of IoT at work. These appendage-related devices typically collect data, such as temperature, or heart rates, and convey that to other devices wirelessly, which in turn can offer results and suggestions toward more efficient, perhaps cheaper, perhaps safer, and almost always more valuable practices and lifestyles. Many other examples come from imaging,  records and data collection, surgery, and daily in-hospital patient care. Entities in this realm include Apple, GE, Cisco, and Intel.
• Industrial: This is a pivotal area, where really big IoT applications will come in. Thus, be it a power station that in an IoT simulates and prepares for the obvious electrical grid failure (and thus limits the ultimate effect and cost of the real failure), or a monitoring device on a farm that automatically measures how quickly a tank depletes, and then automatically conveys that depletion to the liquid supplier, there is great common sense and wisdom and practicality supporting IoT here. Examples of entities forcing the change here include GE, Bosch, Cisco, Ericsson, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, and Qualcomm.
• Cities: Metropolises make up yet another huge set of current future IoT users and providers. Traffic and utilities are but a couple of the obvious IoT makers and shakers. The safety, efficiency, cost-efficiency, and day-to-day management of large fleets of town and city fleet vehicles is but another. Indeed, if the entire future of IoT involved only towns and cities, that alone would be a future business worth trillions of dollars! Current stalwarts among this group include most large cities, some remarkably innovative smaller cities (See, www.intelligentcommunity.org), and companies such as Xerox, GE, Intel, Philips, Cisco, and IBM.

Future www.IoTComplete.com articles will zero in on each of these particular silos, and sets of specific industry players, with a wider and often more-detailed view of trends, opportunities, challenges, gaps, balances, and takeaways. Stay on top of IoT developments, changes, and openings, both personally and professionally, by turning to the www.IoTComplete.com website regularly for additional articles, news, information and coverage of events, consulting opportunities, litigation matters, conference speaking and sponsorship, and a lot more of the Internet of Things!

 

by IoTComplete’s Jimmy Schaeffler

Developing a viable Internet of Things, like just about every technology that preceded it, is not going to be an easy task. Challenging it from the outset will be a series of questions, concerns, and obstacles, some of the key of which are noted here below

1. Who controls IoT’s “Big Data”? 
2. Will The IoT Infrastructure Be Adequate?
3. Will There Be A Lack of IoT Standards?
4. How Will We Create/Maintain IoT Data Quality?
5. How Can We Maintain Adequate + Timely IoT Business Integration?
6. How Do We Manage Government Policy and Regulations re: IoT?
7. How Will We Create/Engender Best IoT Uses and Practices (.e.g., Relevant and Place/Geo Sensitive)?
8. When Will The Business and Consumer Communities Be Ready For Primetime IoT?
9. Which Companies Will Dominate IoT?
10. Is The IoT Right For You, Is It Right For Your Company?

Visit www.IoTComplete.com for contact and more details.

Saving Money and Time, and Consumers Will Help Build It

By IoTComplete’s Jimmy Schaeffler

(November 1, 2014: Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA)

The Internet of Things (IoT) is another way of stating the idea that more and more people will use and carry devices on their person, and in their homes and vehicles, and more and more business machines will have many more similar (and more complex) devices. All those devices will in turn communicate with other devices in other machines and other places, all the while analyzing the data that comes from those original devices, typically aimed at making actions and people and machines more efficient.

Yet the real key for humankind is that that collection and analysis be done well, so as ultimately to use this amazing new technology to improve the quality of our lives.

With that in mind, IoTComplete.com introduces our consumer audience to what some of those key improvements are going to represent (in nor particular order). A future IoTComplete.com article intends to examine a similar subject via-a-vis the business community.

• #1  The IoT will allow us to become more efficient. Just one small example of this will be less and less time spent in the auto driving, and more time spent doing other, more productive things, even if that is just reading the news or reviewing emails while traveling between locales at 75 miles per hour.
• # 2  The IoT will make people safer, which means they will have less stress (if they want that), and they will live longer.
• # 3  The IoT will save us money. Overall, things that are done for a given sum today will be done for less money using the IoT. For example, a car run more safely and efficiently because of the IoT, means a car that lasts longer because it is repaired as needed, and it does not fall victim to car crashes.
• # 4  The IoT will lessen the time spent doing chores, thus permitting people to be more productive and, ideally (if they want it), have more leisure time.
• # 5  The IoT will become a greater value. This means that software and hardware that is expensive today because it is rare and difficult to implement, will quickly become less so, meaning quicker implementation of IoT is achieved.
• # 6  The IoT will mean constant, 24/7 connectivity. Note that like several others of these “Likes,” there is also an element of dislike, i.e., many people will not appreciate this level of connectivity. But, for those that do, the stimuli will be awesome!
• # 7  The IoT will mean a much greater sense of knowledge and awareness. Similar to the “Like” # 6 above, information (and entertainment) will be collected, and will be coming and going, incessantly, which means for those who value more data and knowledge, it will be a good time to be a human being.
• Bonus: The IoT will be great fun to develop. That is because not unlike the world of “apps” that are developed and installed in smart phones today, future IoT implementations will be proposed by citizens and welcomed by businesses.

A future IoTComplete.com article will focus on “7 Things About IoT You Are Not Going To Like,” however, to further incentivize people, businesses, governments, and other institutions to maintain a level of optimism and enthusiasm necessary for the maximization of new innovation and investment necessary to get us most deliberately and quickly into IoT, we insist on beginning with the positives.

Jimmy Schaeffler loves to write about The Internet of Things (IoT). That is because there are so many things about it, and importantly, so many good things about it, that people need to learn about. By focusing on the professional consideration of news, opinion, research, and concrete tactics and strategies, Mr. Schaeffler’s aim is to provide a top-level, one-stop resource for publication, consulting, conference and speaking needs. The IoTComplete.com business is designed toward helping companies, governments and institutions grapple with the new realities and planning necessary to thrive in the IoT & M2M era faced by every person and entity globally. Visit www.IoTComplete.com for contact and more details.

Common Sense Hallmarks Are Ubiquity And Affordability

By IoTComplete’s Jimmy Schaeffler

(October 1, 2014; Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA)

People, especially business people, like trends.

They like trends because knowledge of where people and businesses are going creates opportunities, both to make money and to avoid losing money, for example.

With that in mind, IoTComplete.com introduces what is intended to be a regular feature of the site, which is a regular update, of at least a twice-yearly variety, on the most important trends affecting the Internet of Things (IoT).

Note that the numbering of these IoT trends is done for guidance, and not for rating purposes, because we deem it likely too early in the IoT lifecycle to estimate those trends’ relative importance. This is another way of saying: all the IoT trends important right now, which is why we list them.

1)      Building the IoT into things that people use will become the norm, rather than the clear exception it is today. Thus, from the start of the manufacturing process, increasingly engineers and manufacturers will make the implementation of IoT a standard and necessary step in the building of future hardware and software (See, IoTComplete.com, Article entitled “The Internet of Things Lights Your Business… Today”).

2)      That said, security will continue to menace the machines and devices that use the IoT. The security menace, however, will not prevail. That is because, not unlike what General Instrument did with its C-Band services, and not unlike what the North American cable industry has done, pirates can be controlled, especially if you upset their economics (See, IoT.Complete.com, Article entitled “IoT + Security, Piracy, & Privacy: It’s Economically Solvable”).

3)      Certain industries, nonetheless, will favor IoT over others. These industries will include transportation, manufacturing, and medical, because management, efficiency, and scheduling are so critical to these businesses. Some businesses that are much less likely to require IoT implementation at such an enhanced pace are music, religion, and education.

4)     Governments will adapt quickly to the IoT, primarily because running efficiently is a paradigm of good government. This will be the case on the smallest local level, regionally, and nationally. Indeed, really well-oiled national governments will use IoT to connect with other national governments and peoples. Smart cities, like Barcelona, are incorporating IoT to help with projects, such as water and waste management and electric supply. Indeed, because nearly half of all California households do not have water meters – especially in this time of once-in-a-millennium drought – adoption of IoT plans and methods is all the more critical to basic quality of life.

5)      The early chaos of tens of thousands and more IoT stakeholders will subside. Thus, the volume of IoT stakeholders in every subdivision and sub-part of the new IoT industry, all clamoring for a spot in The Land of IoT, will quickly morph as the acquirers consume the acquirees. In the longer term, not unlike the distribution services of Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS), satellite radio, cable, and Internet Protocol (IP), automobile, fast foods, pharmacological, and most of the video content business today, that consolidation will, within a couple of decades, become a concern.

6)     Bonus Trend:  The Value and Cost-Effectiveness of IoT Will Drive The Acceleration of These and Other Related IoT Trends.

Jimmy Schaeffler founded IotComplete.com based on the idea of exploring as many corners of the Internet of Things as passionately possible. He uses his decades of telecom expertise and professional forces to fully light the burgeoning worlds of IoT & M2M. By focusing on the professional consideration of news, opinion, research, and concrete tactics and strategies, Mr. Schaeffler’s aim is to provide a top-level, one-stop resource for publication, consulting, conference and speaking needs. The IoTComplete.com business is designed toward helping companies, governments and institutions grapple with the new realities and planning necessary to thrive in the IoT & M2M era faced by every person and entity globally. Visit www.IoTComplete.com for more detail.

Getting IoT Ready For Future Versions 2.0, 3.0, and More

 By IoTComplete’s Jimmy Schaeffler

(September 1, 2014; Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA)

A fairly thorough review of much literature available today about challenges affecting the Internet of Things (IoT), makes clear that a better appreciation of and a better response to protecting the network — and its users! — is critical.

That said, it is merely the humble opinion of this author, that we conclude…this is very solvable.

Security Backgrounder

For background, Jimmy Schaeffler has significant history and experience delving into matters of content security, and network protection.

Jimmy Schaeffler and his firm The Carmel Group also have a deep history of involvement in studies of content-related security matters, especially white papers and similar studies, and most intensively as lead expert witness in the California federal court case of EchoStar vs. NDS, and the case of Videotron vs. Bell ExpressVu in Canada.

The Elements of Security

True knowledge of content security points early to the fact that the success or failure of piracy mitigation and elimination efforts is largely a measure of controlling the flow of money to and from the “hackers,” or pirates, themselves. That dynamic has not changed since the 1990s and the early days of the GI VideoCypher encryption process.

Thus, from the days of early Direct Broadcast Satellites (DBS), lessons surface whereby strong security required that regularly funding and regularly switching out smart cards was required in order to make piracy uneconomical for millions of would-be pirates.

It is important also to note that different businesses need different levels of protection. For example, personal security protection for an Internet-connected pill bottle cap (that reminds one to take his/her pills) will vary greatly from that of a Machine-to-Machine (M2M) security protection in a nuclear power plant.

Yet that said, one ready solution is seen in cheaper and more readily-available memory and processing (or “brains”), such that security can be built into even the less critical infrastructures, at multiple levels, meaning there are multiple “security checks” at various processing points in any IoT unit. An example would be the safety restraints in a vehicle, relying not just on one security unit for the entire vehicle or an entire subsystem, but instead relying on multiple “brains” down or up the line, meaning if one fails, there are always others to back it up. In short, IoT engineers need to back up each end device, so that the security lapse can never spread further into the value chain.

Next Steps

Traditionally, one of the better ways to move infrastructure and ideas forward is to create a trade group, which in turn has the capacity to bring competitive factions together, and ideally they then, together, create new standards, based upon longer term common interests.

Failing this intra-industry, more volunteer-like method, governments rarely become involved to set things like new security standards. This, obviously, is a far less preferable direction than that done alone by the industry members themselves.

Conclusions

Without security that minimizes piracy, you can never have privacy.

And even for today’s digital generation, who clearly have not yet learned to cherish their privacy in the way that their parents and grandparents do, a reasonable sum of piracy will become more and more important as every generation ages. That is to say, lest there be doubt: we need less piracy, and we need more privacy.

Better security can be had, we just need to keep thinking about it, keep acting on it, keep funding it, and keep building it. That sum of evil in human kind is there to stay, the hackers are not going away, and the only way to truly thwart them is to put in place security protections, which include education, technology, and penalties/incentives.

Jimmy Schaeffler has harnessed his expertise and professional forces to fully light the burgeoning worlds of IoT & M2M. By focusing on the professional consideration of news, opinion, research, and concrete tactics and strategies, his aim is to provide a top-level, one-stop resource for publication, consulting, conference and speaking needs. The IoTComplete.com business is designed toward helping companies, governments and institutions grapple with the new realities and planning necessary to thrive in the IoT & M2M era faced by every person and entity globally. Visit www.IoTComplete.com for contact and more details.

Further Prepping DISH For Its Future

By IoTComplete’s Jimmy Schaeffler 

(August 7, 2014; Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA)

Missed Signals

As he typically does, DISH Network’s (NASDAQ: DISH) chairman, Charlie Ergen, occupied most of an 80-minute quarterly analyst call on Wednesday, August 6, handling the majority of 60-minutes’ worth of Wall Street financial analysts’ questions, and the bulk of the 20-minutes’ worth of reporter’s “media” questions.

After the call, the media wrote about some to-be-expected topics, such as why DISH didn’t buy DirecTV; what Ergen thinks about Over-The-Top (OTT), broadband, and mobile opportunities; and what happens with the forthcoming spectrum auctions.

Yet, more importantly than most media and analysts observed, Mr. Ergen stated numerous times on the call, that he wants DISH Network to be thought of as a company, and as an equity and/or debt investment, that investors make for the long haul. Especially in that light, most media somewhat dropped the ball on the August 6, 2014, 2d Q DISH analyst call. This is because not a single media writer wrote anything about the details of one of the two core things Charlie Ergen spoke about as having to do with the real long-term viability of DISH Network. And that is because not one media (that we searched for and observed) wrote about (or wrote any of the details about) Mr. Ergen’s comments concerning the Internet of Things (IoT), and its star child, Machine-To-Machine (M2M) businesses.

Clearly, for the long-term, Mr. Ergen and his team are already focusing on IoT/M2M, and how DISH will be ahead of that curve. That is yet another reason why savvy investors – those looking at years instead of days, weeks, or even months – might be wise to reconsider DISH as a long-term play of unique and significant value.

DISH and The IoT/M2M Phenomenon

 Charlie Ergen has always been a visionary. Regular meetings with him through the years have witnessed discussions ranging from future business plans before DISH Network even launched (way back in 1994), to more recent dialogue focused on DISH’s net neutrality, mobile, and broadband futures.

Thus, it is entirely in keeping with Charlie as a Media Soothsayer, that he would, in the middle of 2014, step several feet ahead of the competition (as he did long ago relative to DirecTV and their respective mobile spectrum plays), and already be looking deeply into the IoT.

The DISH-IoT Vision, Inside and Beyond Video

Specific IoT items and examples Mr. Ergen mentioned were first the idea that the computer power inside every consumer device, coupled with the instant and permanent connectivity that comes by way of the Internet, creates a world where that coupling becomes the rule, not the exception.

Within that realm, examples Mr. Ergen offered include a smart phone that is tracked wherever it is carried, and via location based services (LBS), the device then communicates with the smart phone user about products and services and ads for those, such that they can be purchased instantly and shipped, with a single push of button on that amazing smart phone.

That coupling makes the transaction so much more seamless, and a company that owns the pipe used for that ad and transaction, and that has figured out how to effectively maximize revenues — because that company has studied and understands the ecosystem — will have an advantage both in the marketplace and over its competitors. Facebook’s mobile ad revenue increasing in two years from nothing to 62% was cited by Mr. Ergen as an example of this phenomenon.

Opined Mr. Ergen, “…we think it will be important to pay for subscription TV, get pay-TV, get it wherever you are, get it on all your devices, and get ads that are streamed to you that are meaningful to you. Five years from now, you’re just not going to see an ad of an airplane flying with music saying – a branding ad that says ‘fly the friendly skies’– nobody’s going to say that. The ad’s going to say ‘book a ticket, push the button’… that’s going to be a better ad.

“You’re not going to have a Starbucks ad with somebody sitting behind — talking about ‘we brew coffee.’ It’s going to be, push the button to say what size cappuccino do you want? Advertising’s going to change.”

IoT + Video

Moving beyond an IoT focus on video, Mr. Ergen further predicted IoT for strong sums of incredibly valuable data. “The other thing about wireless networks is the number of devices, the number of things that will be connected to the network, that is going to grow by 10 times what it is today. Every car, every pet, every child, every refrigerator, every camera, every security system, every watch, every machine is going to be connected wirelessly to a network.

“Today, you’re seeing growth in wireless on tablets. That’s where most of the growth is coming from. But, in the future, it’s going to be all those other devices,” Ergen added.

Wrapping up the topic, Ergen noted, “…and most people look at the world as it is today, and they say ‘right;’ but I look at it as ‘everything’s going to be connected.’ In my lifetime, the only way you’re going to connect it all is through wireless spectrum. Someday, there will be other ways to do it; there will be photons, there will be some other way to do it. But, in my lifetime, it’s going to be wireless, and you’re going to want to be connected and you’re going to be happy to pay for it.” (See, this website, the article “IoT 101: The 4 Basics“).

It is also interesting to note that the Ergen response was the result of a question asked by the best (and one of the smartest) analyst on the call last week, Craig Moffett (www.moffettnathanson.com),  who also has been focused on the media/telecom space for decades now. Perhaps Craig was testing Mr. Ergen, to see if Charlie really was looking ahead and professing a true passion for, and understanding of, DISH’s longer-term future?

Incidentally, Mr. Ergen has indeed clearly taken these core, highly-recommended steps that literally every business must take, and that were discussed in this www.IoTComplete.com article from last week (See, “The Internet of Things Lights Your Business…Today,” http://www.IoTComplete.com).

Jimmy Schaeffler deploys his expertise and professionalism at IOTComplete.com to fully light the burgeoning worlds of IoT & M2M. By focusing on the professional consideration of news, opinion, research, and concrete tactics and strategies, the IoTComplete.com aim is to provide a top-level, one-stop resource for publication, consulting, conference and speaking needs. The IoTComplete.com business is designed toward helping companies, governments, and institutions grapple with the new realities, strategies, and planning necessary to thrive in the IoT & M2M era faced by every person and entity globally. Visit www.IoTComplete.com for more detail.

By IoTComplete’s Jimmy Schaeffler

(July 15, 2014; Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA)

No less impactful than Thomas Edison’s 1879 prediction that electricity would radically change every business, the pundits today who foresee every business — first in America, and then globally — being remarkably impacted by the Internet of Things (i.e., IoT, which includes subparts known as the Internet of Everything (IoE) and Machine-To-Machine (M2M)), are shining a lot of true light on a technology-centered plant that will grow, grow, grow.

Original All-IoT Projections

Indeed, IoTComplete has recently completed three-, five-, and ten-year projections of IoT device and machine growth, and no less than 22 bil. separate devices in the personal space and 31 bil. in the business machine space — taking the total projection to more than 50 bil. IoT-connected items — are realistic numbers for IoT growth globally by 2020, just 4 years hence.

In this vein, one small space alone highlights the IoT growth potential: between 15 mil. and 20 mil. automobiles are typically manufactured in the U.S. annually these years. Including a mere five sensors (there are actually dozens and dozens more) into every one of those vehicles quickly suggests a very achievable annual foundation of 100 mil. Multiply this tiny part of but a single industry silo, times the at least hundreds of thousands of similar examples, and the realistic light on IoT growth soon gets really visible and really bright.

On the revenue side, calculating pennies of value per device from the same equation above equates to many bils. of dollars, which arguably should be much more when studying the total impact. $15 bil., $25 bil….more, less?!?…it really doesn’t matter, the IoTComplete message is, it’s just a lot of value.

5 Key Reasons

Not unlike the true value of electrical power, the true value of IoT is hard to limit to a handful of reasons. That is because there are truly hundreds and more reasons why this new technology becomes the new way of doing business, in much less than a decade.

Yet, to really focus on the “major macro movers,” as we term them, IoTComplete has deeply investigated the fields of IoT, and found just a handful of hidden treasures. These five core considerations are…

• To understand IoT sooner rather than later means you understand your own business and its opportunities. Specifically, one of the great things you understand is how the scores and hundreds of IoT implementations will impact your own business. One example would be how the IoT will permit your business to get the most efficiency and lowest prices out of its electricity needs, by syncing via IoT capabilities with the local utility company. Another basic opportunity would include the ability to utilize an embedded chip within a package to notify your customer of the arrival date and point of a core part for its $10 bil. auto assembly plant.
• To understand the future of IoT is to understand a (if not THE) # 1 trend affecting your vendors, suppliers, and customers, indeed, affecting all of society and all of the global economy. This cannot be understated. That is because the efficiencies IoT offers, together with an enhanced ease of acceptance and deployment, are driving forces that make “when” the issue, far less than “if.”
• To understand what IoT means to your customers means you have seized an opportunity that might otherwise have been lost to your competitors. This is especially the case in what may well prove to be the most serious of the initial IoT applications, i.e., M2M realizations. And on a consumer level, a sample situation would involve typical plane delay text and/or email notifications that today arrive late, after you are already at the new gate and on the delayed aircraft, instead arriving in time to actually help you travel. Another would be a package delivery service that pings you and efficiently coordinates a delivery to sync when you are actually home to receive the package.
• Getting seriously into the IoT early suggests more quickly helping to resolve the huge issues that threaten to hamper the breadth and speed of both personal and professional IoT growth and appreciation. Put another way, with something this good, something this obvious, and something this inevitable, to wait is to waste, and it will require more energy and passion than you might expect (because its scope, breadth, and impact will be so substantial).
• Follow the key early industry pundits and opinion makers from the start. A handful of top-level companies, and a smaller number of top educational institutions, will have huge sway over key steps just a short time away.

Edison-Like Execution

One thing the Man from Menlo Park, NJ truly understood was how to take ideas from inside the brain to actually practical and massive implementation in that outside world. Companies, governmental entities, and educational institutions have real opportunities — today — to begin the investigation of those real business basics, i.e., the what, where, when, why, how and who of the IoT. From there, steps and strategies toward the development of the IoT arise, most organically.

Because the Iot has so many potential applications, most of which have not yet been revealed and certainly not yet implemented, the future role of the IoT inside and outside every conceivable object and operation, cannot help but remind one of the many successful lessons taught by Thomas A. Edison.

IoTComplete cordially and professionally invites you, our Viewer, our Reader, our Constituent to reach out to IoTComplete, in order to best implement the steps and considerations noted above.

Jimmy Schaeffler is the principal behind the burgeoning new IoT service-provider, IotComplete.com, a Northern California-based entity, focused on the development of and strategies involving future global personal and business technologies…for more information, visit www.IoTComplete.com for contact and more details.