This week we learnt that yet another bunch of leading tech firms aim to create interoperability standards for the Internet of Things (IoT).
Intel, chip makers Atmel and Broadcom, Dell and Samsung teamed up to form the Open Interconnect Consortium – an open-source standard for wirelessly connecting devices to one another and to the Internet.
This arrival follows a rival consortium called AllSeen Alliance, which formed back in December 2013. Led by the Linux Foundation and Qualcomm, it includes big names like LG, Sharp, Panasonic and Cisco, and only last week welcomed software giant Microsoft.
Meanwhile, Google’s Nest API and Apple’s Homekit are developing their own standards for IoT as well.
But why can’t they all just form one group? Especially with experts warning that the deployment of billions of smart devices could be held back by too many competing standards.
And they were certainly competing last week. A blog for the New York Times quoted Imad Sousou, Intel’s GM of opensource technology, as saying: "It’s [AllSeen] not being done in a way that will drive widespread adoption."
It added that other members of the Interconnect consortium said that many other chip companies did not trust Qualcomm to fully donate its intellectual property.
Reuters also quoted Intel’s VP Doug Fisher as saying the group were hoping to focus on security and other matters that AllSeen is failing to address.
In the longterm, they’ll eventually have to learn how to work together and create one standard for everyone to use.
Lionel Lamy, VP of European Services Research at IDC, told CBR he believes this will take time.
"Not sure rival standards will merge – it is too soon to say…They might be more successful in different areas or industries… so I dont expect anything of the kind – that is a merger – in the short or medium term" he said.
