IEEE’s IoT initiative launched a Scenarios contributor program to help developers “get exposure for IoT projects, ideas, and services and to provide a venue for sharing best practices and lessons learned,” the standards group said in a Thursday announcement. The program’s submission process “provides a streamlined means to easily upload IoT contributions in PDF format” through a targeted landing page, it said.

Annual revenue generated from the shipment of connected, residential devices is expected to increase nearly tenfold -- from $7.3 billion in 2015 to $67.7 billion -- by 2025, said a report Thursday by Navigant Research. It said barriers could stunt market growth, including "multiple protocols and standards among devices," which Navigant said has contributed to an "interoperability barrier" that could potentially stall device adoption.

In a midyear update Tuesday, the Z-Wave Alliance said it has certified 1,350 Z-Wave products and has a total of 40 million units in the market. Membership, it said, passed 325 companies. The smart home industry is on track to reach $58.68 billion revenue by 2020, said the alliance, citing Markets and Markets, and is being driven by security products and smart locks. Z-Wave products now are 90 percent of that segment, it said. The alliance stopped short of making a HomeKit announcement but alluded in a statement to Apple’s recently held Worldwide Developers Conference 15 and the news that iOS 9 will support HomeKit. "Z-Wave already has the largest footprint in the security industry,” said Z-Wave Alliance board member Avi Rosenthal. “Every major player is an active member of the Z-Wave Alliance and developing on the Z-Wave standard," he said. "We project that with HomeKit entering the market and Z-Wave as the largest available smart home ecosystem at retail today, consumers will naturally migrate to what is known, proven and popular, and Z-Wave will continue to dominate the smart home." Rosenthal’s statement was toned down from statements last week made by Sigma Designs Chief Financial Officer Elias Nader on an earnings call (see 1506100003) in which he said would-be Z-Wave adopters “will be encouraged by Apple to tie into the Z-Wave ecosystem.” Nader said “Apple has embraced Z-Wave as a part of the experience that they want to deliver to customers.” That will mean a “big advantage for Z-Wave,” because that platform will have “greatest worldwide footprint” in the IoT space “of anybody else out there,” Nader said. The alliance didn’t comment on how Apple will encourage customers to adopt Z-Wave.

Since January, AT&T signed IoT agreements with more than 136 companies in various industries, it said Monday in a news release. AT&T’s network had almost 22 million IoT connected devices as of March 31, it said. More than 945,000 devices connected during Q1, a 70 percent jump over the same quarter in 2014. “Companies and consumers are embracing the connected world,” AT&T said. “They want solutions from connected cars to wearable devices (like smartwatches), to tools that help cities (like [monitoring of] energy grids, streetlights and irrigation pipes).”

TechIPm added a patent database for key IoT wireless connectivity standards to its research offerings, the intellectual property consulting firm said Thursday in a blog post. Many market researchers expect interconnected IoT devices to “create a new market that will result in more than $1 trillion in value added to the global economy within 10 years,” the firm said. “Wireless connectivity is the key enabler for the mass deployment of the IoT devices.” More than 3,000 patents owned by more than 160 assignees “are identified as the key wireless standard patents for IoT connectivity,” it said. The combined IP holdings of LG, Qualcomm and Samsung account for nearly 30 percent “of the identified key wireless standard patents for the IoT connectivity,” it said. “The patent database for the key IoT wireless connectivity standards can be used for many diverse purposes in the strategic patent management and exploitation such as competitive intelligence, M&A strategy, IP financing, open innovation and monetization.”

The Open Interconnect Consortium added 25 member organizations from around the world in sectors ranging from energy and engineering to gaming and education, a news release said Wednesday. New organizations include the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, Honeywell International, MIT-Kerberos & Internet Trust Consortium and the Telecommunications Technology Association. OIC also established liaison agreements with the Digital Living Network Alliance and UPnP Forum to “maintain compatibility and ensure common usages are covered,” the release said. “The addition of these organizations expands our scope well beyond consumer electronics and the smart home, all while accelerating toward our goal -- interoperability for connected solutions worldwide,” said Executive Director Mike Richmond, newly named executive director (see separate report below in this issue).

Representatives of Spectrum Networks Group (SNG) met with FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Roger Sherman and others at the agency to discuss the FCC’s April rejection of its waiver request to use 900 MHz spectrum for an IoT network. SNG had wanted to use 900 MHz business/industrial/land transportation channels for a third-party service providing machine-to-machine communications (see 1504130062). “We described numerous instances where the Bureau has granted license applications” for similar use in the 900 MHz channels, SNG said. “We provided an update on M2M’s business plan. We also discussed potential alternative means for SNG and M2M to obtain licensed narrowband spectrum in support of its business and its network, either through new applications or rulemaking.” The filing was posted Tuesday in docket 14-100.

Qualcomm Atheros announced six ecosystem providers whose cloud services software integrate with Qualcomm’s QCA4002 Wi-Fi solution and development platform for the IoT. Underscoring the importance of diverse IoT ecosystem solutions for cloud-based services, Joseph Bousaba, senior director-product management, Qualcomm Atheros, said the addition of the six providers enables customers to quickly deploy solutions with the appropriate cloud provider for their industry segment. The new providers are Ayla Networks, Exosite, Kii, Proximetry, Temboo and Xively by LogMeIn. In addition, Qualcomm Atheros bowed two intelligent IoT connectivity solutions embedding the AllJoyn software framework. The QCA401x is said to answer manufacturer demand for increased computing, memory and features in a smaller size with lower cost and reduced power consumption. TheQCA401x, currently being sampled by OEMs, includes Wi-Fi, HTTP and IPv6 communication protocols. The QCA4531 is a low-cost turnkey solution with a user-programmable Linux/OpenWRT environment based on 2x2 11n, said the company. The QCA4531 can function as an access point supporting up to 16 simultaneous devices, said Qualcomm, and it's currently shipping to appliance manufacturers and other IoE-focused customers, it said.

The Online Trust Alliance is welcoming experts from private and public industry to join its initiative to develop a security, privacy and sustainability trust framework for IoT devices, it said in a Wednesday news release. OTA said the framework is intended to provide clarity and confidence to consumers as they shop and use connected devices, with an initial focus on the connected home and wearable/fitness technologies. OTA hopes the framework will be used as a basis for a potential certification program for IoT devices and applications, it said. A draft will be shared in a panel at the TRUSTe IoT privacy summit June 17, it said. “With the rapid introduction of Internet of Things products into the market, we must ensure that security and privacy best practices are integrated to maximize consumer protection,” said OTA Executive Director Craig Spiezle. “According to preliminary data from OTA’s forthcoming Online Trust Audit, 14 percent of leading IoT products did not have a discoverable privacy policy for consumers to review prior to purchase,” Spiezle said. “We welcome industry leaders to join in the multi-stakeholder effort to raise the bar and make security, privacy and sustainability key product attributes.” OTA’s next full working group meeting is June 16 in Mountain View, California. Leaders in the security and privacy community, app developers, manufacturers and international retailers were invited to provide input. TRUSTe CEO Chris Babel welcomed OTA’s initiative to extend the work of the IoT Privacy Tech Working Group to include the security and sustainability issues arising out of the explosion of data collection from connected devices, he said. “Considering that 79 percent of U.S. consumers are concerned about data collected by connected devices, we urge companies to join this important endeavor to develop clear standards for privacy and security in the Internet of Things.”

Samsung announced an IoT platform combining integrated production-ready modules, software, development boards, drivers, tools, security features and cloud connectivity that are designed to speed development of “better, smarter” IoT devices. By leveraging Samsung’s high-volume manufacturing, silicon process, packaging technologies and ecosystem, the Artik platform allows developers to “rapidly turn great ideas into market leading IoT products and applications,” said Young Sohn, Samsung chief strategy officer. On the hardware side, Artik comprises embedded hardware security technology, on-board memory and advanced processing power in an open platform, said Samsung. Security is a key element of the integrated software that enables connection to the Internet for cloud-based data analytics and enhanced services, said the company. Artik is configurable to meet requirements for a range of devices including wearables, home automation, smart lighting and industrial applications, said Samsung. Components of Artik include Artik 1, said to be the smallest IoT module available at 12mm x 12mm. It has Bluetooth Smart connectivity, a nine-axis sensor and is designed for low-power, smart form factor applications, said the company. Artik 5, with a 1 GHz dual-core processor, on-board DRAM and flash memory, is designed for use in home hubs, drones and high-end wearables, Samsung said. At the high-performance end, Artik 10 has an eight-core processor, 1080p video decoding/encoding, 5.1 audio, 2 GB DRAM and 16GB flash memory, said the company. It includes Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Smart and ZigBee connectivity and is designed for use with home servers, media applications, and in industrial settings, it said.