MWC 2016: IoT & Enterprise

What was hot at MWC? We round up the action around enterprise IT and the Internet of Things.

IoT Enthusiasm Hits a Peak…

MWC demonstrated beyond a doubt that the IoT merits its recently-awarded reigning spot at the top of the Gartner hype cycle. The vendors present at MWC were more than keen to demonstrate their IoT solutions, using the full range of established and emerging network standards. Notable IoT announcements from operators at the show included AT&T announcing another round of lucrative connected-car deals; and Deutsche Telekom and SKT announcing a major IoT-focused strategic alliance (the Next Generation Enterprise Network Alliance). SKT even showed a range of Android-based devices for dogs, although it couldn’t run to an actual dog to demonstrate them.

There were significant announcements from ARM about low-power chips, from the Linux Foundation about device operating systems, and from Actility, Jasper, Gemalto, and Cisco about service platforms. We also noted that the special relationship between Nokia and Intel touches on the IoT – the two tech vendors took part in a (Narrow Band) NB-IoT trial with Vodafone.

According to one analyst firm, we’re now up to 300 identifiable IoT “platforms” – a testament both to the creative energy being applied to IoT development, and to the potentially crippling degree of fragmentation affecting it. For the industry to progress on IoT, a shakeout – and clearer winners on the standardisation of technologies and platforms – must be coming up somewhere along the line.

The fight between the platforms, however, is not the only important story. There’s also a big question about the level of the IoT stack at which the most value will accrue. The candidates: IoT devices, the network, the service-enablement platform, the data layer, or individual apps? This cuts across the question of which vendor’s platform will ‘win’. There will certainly be multiple IoT platforms that find traction, with some particularly suited to specific verticals and use cases, but understanding where operators and others can most effectively monetise the IoT opportunity is a fundamental question that most players still seem unclear on.