WNA

At MWC, the Internet of Things was on display though networked wearables, car infotainment, home monitoring and devices of all sorts.

The Internet of Things (Machine2Machine) connects devices over mobile networks, enabling the management of a wide range of new goods and services.

In January Google announced it would pay more than $3 billion for Nest’s smart thermostat technology. It connects using Bluetooth and meshed network 802.15 standards.

Machine-to-machine (M2M) connectivity, diagnostic and management applications were available for a variety of vertical markets.

• Archos showed Bluetooth Low Energy devices to monitor and control smart appliances, including cameras, weather stations, movement detectors, door and window sensors. The Archos Mini Cam connects to a hub via Bluetooth LE.
  
  
  

  While Bluetooth LE can typically only maintain communications with three or four other devices, the Android tablet at the hub of the Archos smart-home system has a special antenna taking the range to 20 meters and a tweaked software stack allowing it to communicate with up to 32 devices simultaneously.

• Ford’s new Focus, unveiled at the show Tuesday, has technology to help drivers park their cars and lets parents adjust various features when their children drive the car.
  
  
  

  The car features Sync 2, an updated version of Ford’s in-car connectivity and entertainment system. Based around an eight-inch display, it offers voice control of the audio system, navigation and climate control. Two apps, Parkopedia and Aupeo! allow users to search for parking spaces and browse the radio respectively. Ford says it’s ‘not married’ to Microsoft for next-gen Sync, but that BlackBerry’s QNX isn’t necessarily in.

  
  

  “Consumers expect to have the same connected experience with their cars that they have with the mobile phones,” said Stephen Odell, president of Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Ford Motor.

  The Connected Car Cloud, was announced Tuesday by Jasper Wireless. It is designed to let car makers offer a range of safety, security and infotainment systems. Jasper will power AT&T Drive, a global automotive platform for developing LTE connected car services.

  Jasper announced a Global SIM (subscriber identity module), designed to allow international distribution, activation and management for any device that has an embedded SIM. Jasper has a SaaS (software-as-a-service) model, where companies pay fees based on the number of device connected to its wireless platform.

  
  
• China’s Huawei announced the TalkBand, priced at 99 euros (US$136). It offers up to seven hours of calling on one charge and a 1.4-inch flexible OLED display. It supports Android 2.3+ and iOS 5.0+ compatible devices and offers NFC syncing. It’s designed to track activity, including steps taken, miles covered and calories burned.
  
  
  
• Sierra Wireless debuted its Linux-based Legato platform, for machine-to-machine (M2M) applications.
  
• Samsung put sensor technology into all three Galaxy Gear devices it showed this week, to allow for heart-rate monitoring and other health applications.
  

GSMA expects major growth in machine to machine (M2M) technology, with growth from 195 million M2M connections in 2013 to 250 million this year.

Annual expenditures of integrated “smart” building applications, as measured by equipment supplier revenues, will grow globally by 150 percent by 2017, according to a new report released by IHS (NYSE: IHS), a leading global source of critical information and insight.

The global market for integrated equipment in buildings is forecast to grow at an average annual rate of 20.3 percent—from $12.6 billion in 2012 to $31.6 billion by 2017.