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A new consortium ostensibly aimed at defining connectivity and interoperability requirements for the Internet of Things sector is likely to make IoT standardization increasingly convoluted.
The Open Interconnect Consortium (OIC) was formed by Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC), Dell Technologies (Nasdaq: DELL), Broadcom Corp. (Nasdaq: BRCM), Atmel Corp. (Nasdaq: ATML), Samsung Corp. , and Wind River Systems Inc. The group's aim is to create connectivity standards based on open source code to ensure interoperability of connected IoT devices.
Noticeably absent from the ranks of the OIC's founders, however, is Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM), which backs the 51-member AllSeen Alliance that Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) joined just last week. That group is angling to standardize IoT device interconnection via the AllJoyn language. None of the founding companies in the OIC are members of the AllSeen Alliance. (See Microsoft Joins Qualcomm & Friends in IoT Standards Group.)
Heavy hitters like Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL), meanwhile, appear to be steering clear of any consortium, presumably content to develop their own IoT connectivity specifications.
The announcement of the OIC's formation offers few details about its specific approach to standards development, but the group's emphasis on openness, collaboration, and choice could be taken as a jab at AllJoyn, which, while now open-source, was a Qualcomm-developed platform. (See Qualcomm Launches AllJoyn Project.)
Other industry groups working to contribute to IoT standardization do have overlapping membership with both OIC and AllSeen, including the Industrial Internet Consortium, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. (IEEE) , and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) . With industry pundits projecting tens of millions of connected devices by 2020, the IoT sector is a hotbed of activity -- one likely to get even hotter (and more chaotic) with the formation of seemingly competing standards organizations.
— Jason Meyers, Utility Communications Editor, Light Reading
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