In-depth: Top 10 Internet of Things companies to watch
Who is leading the way in the industrial and consumer Internet of Things markets?
“Internet of Things” technology – connecting every possible device, object or thing to the Internet – promises to be one of the biggest economic revolutions since the Industrial Revolution. Numerous companies recognizing this growing potential are looking to embrace IoT and cash in on what – in five years – could be a multi-trillion dollar market opportunity.
In this in-depth report, RCR Wireless News takes a look at 10 of the leading global IoT companies. As IoT is such a complex and multifaceted subject area, this list is divided by companies based on their slant toward either the consumer or industrial IoT space.
Industrial IoT
Industrial IoT is geared toward macro scale solutions like smart cities, cargo tracking, precision farming and asset management. This list considers how much companies are spending on IoT, as well as how much of their business model revolves around the industrial IoT.
IBM: IBM has sunk $3 billion into its IoT business and has partnered with AT&T to deliver industrial IoT solutions across a range of issues from energy efficiency to healthcare services. Bob Picciano, SVP for IBM Analytics, explained “Our knowledge of the world grows with every connected sensor and device, but too often we are not acting on it, even when we know we can ensure a better result.”
IBM’s well-known machine learning platform Watson is a big part of IBM’s vision of the IoT world. The super computer renders actionable insight from massive amounts of data produced by IBM IoT sensors at a pace no human could ever match.
AT&T: In order to function, the “Internet of Things” relies on wireless broadband connections and AT&T sees IoT applications in a number of verticals as the natural next step in the evolution of the company.
Unique among American carriers, AT&T has formed an IoT business unit and partnered with multiple companies to provide IoT network infrastructure and its own big data analytics. AT&T has also opened several IoT Foundries, focused on IoT research and development.
Glenn Lurie, CEO of AT&T Mobility, said at a recent event in Washington, D.C., “We only got into this space eight plus years ago and we saw that everything in our lives was going to be connected.”
