IoT or Internet of Things is the most emerging field in wireless access area and many companies are trying to grab their space. Cisco Systems and Texas Instruments are two big names who are collaborating with many companies and startups in hopes of advancing this emerging area.
TI is the first one to grab the opportunity. The networking company already formed partnership with eight companies which include 21emetry, ARM, Arrayent, Exosite, IBM, Spark, Thingsquare and Xively.
Cisco on the other hand launched a challenge to help IoT startups get more visibility. Cisco is looking up for new ideas in IoT applications, analytics, management and connectivity. Each winner will share $250,000 and Cisco will help winners develop, test and pilot new technologies.
According to Gartner forecasts to grow to 26 billion installed units by 2020, representing an almost 30-fold increase from 0.9 billion in 2009.