THE INTERNET OF THINGSWEEKLY RECAP10.30.2015

By 2020, Cisco expects nearly 50 billion things to connect to the Internet. On their own, those things will only sip data, but together they’ll gulp up massive amounts.

To prepare for this, Verizon announced it’s creating a separate 4G LTE network specifically for Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

The network will launch in 2016, and will provide connectivity for small IoT things and come with cheaper monthly plans compared to mobile devices.

Image credit: Verizon.

Verizon dives further into the Internet of Things

The carrier also launched its own IoT platform for developers to create apps, manage devices, and for companies to market services.

Verizon says it’s already earned $495 million year-to-date from its IoT and telematics solutions.

The company said it will also commercialize its own big data engine, which can “consume massive amounts of data generated by IoT devices and other machines, analyze it at extremely high speeds and use scalable machine learning to turn raw data into usable intelligence.”

Image credit: Verizon.

IBM will purchase the digital assets (websites, apps and data sets) of The Weather Channel’s parent company, The Weather Company.

The tech giant will license weather data to The Weather Channel, which will remain a separate company.

IBM says routine weather cost U.S. businesses $500 billion last year — and it wants to change that.

Image credit: IBM.

IBM snatches up The Weather Company’s digital assets

IBM said, “The combination of technology and expertise from the two companies will serve as the foundation for the new Watson IoT Unit and Watson IoT Cloud platform.”

The new deal will allow IBM to build on the previous $3 billion investment it made to bring cognitive computing to the Internet of Things.

IBM noted that the acquisition will improve Watson’s weather-related IoT capabilities “and create disruptive industry solutions that optimize decision-making.”

Image credit: IBM.

The chipmaker bought Saffron, a cognitive computing company that uses computers to process information in similar ways that humans do.

Josh Walden, Intel’s senior vice president and general manager of new technology said,

"We see an opportunity to apply cognitive computing not only to high-powered servers crunching enterprise data, but also to new consumer devices that need to see, sense and interpret complex information in real time.”

Image credit: Intel.

Intel buys cognitive computing startup

Combining the company’s Internet of Things chips with cognitive computing could bring massive computing power to IoT devices.

Intel’s hardly the first tech company to dive into cognitive computing, but the move means Intel is serious about not just creating hardware for the IoT, but also controlling how the data is analyzed.

The move also puts Intel directly in competition with IBM’s Watson.

Image credit: IBM.

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