Samsung: Proprietary Apps Will Halt IoT Market Growth

/**/ /**/

Samsung Vice President Dr. Alan Messer was impressed by the number of connected device displays and demonstrations he encountered at the recent CES 2015, but there is a huge problem with having so many different companies in the market, he said.

"Most of those solutions require their app, or some sort of proprietary ecosystem, in order to use them," Messer said.

Messer compared the "app-for-that" model to asking end users to buy a different electric plug and socket for every electric appliance, and also asking the customer to learn a new language to read the instruction manual to operate that appliance. Messer said consumers would never accept that business model in disconnected devices, so why would they in the connected device space?

"It's not a great experience for the user, because you can easily end up with a page on your home screen of apps that are just used to control your home," Messer said.

Beyond the inconvenience of the app-per-device model, Messer said piecemeal integration is impractical and will prevent IoT from penetrating the mass market.

Messer gave another example of Philips Hue light bulbs, which work with other light bulbs of the same smart caliber. But in the event a user wants to integrate them with a second- or third-tier light bulb, "you are so out of luck," Messer said.

To get to the multitrillion-dollar market Cisco and so many other vendors promise, Messer said devices from different companies need to be able to work and communicate with one another.

PUBLISHED FEB. 27, 2015