Interoperability is an extremely serious issue. Objects are manufactured by many vendors, and support different operating systems of different versions. So the peril is that the users will be limited to connect specific devices of specific manufacturers together, and control different groups of devices via different applications and tools that fail to be universal. Therefore confusion and costs will be high, while the value will be limited. In fact, fragmentation and lack of interoperability defies the very definition of “The Internet of Everything“, or the “Connected Objects”. Unfortunately, more often than none, standards and guidelines are late to the game in such highly fast paced environments. In fact, some standards and guidelines have been introduced by the Internet Society, Internet Architecture Board, and GSMA (see previous posts), but only in 2015, after many IoT solutions were already in the market. Nonetheless, interoperability is still one of the biggest challenges to the mass-consumerization of the IoT. Furthermore, standards and guidelines are often developed and driven by the big players of the industry who usually define the market. Therefore the usual suspects will be giants of technology including Google, Apple and Microsoft, as well as (to some extent) telecom companies and device manufacturers, especially Samsung and LG, especially because of their share in home appliances. Standardization however is contradictory to proprietary walled operating systems and devices and poses a threat to the “differentiation” factors of the major players of the market. This is similar to a crowd talking about some valuable information on the same subject, but each person understands the language of a small groups. Now the point is, if there is someone in the crowd who understands all these languages, he can exploit all the advantages, and, all of a sudden the fragmented pieces of the puzzle will make a big picture. This interpreter will be priceless to the crowd.
Now this should be noted that the challenge of interoperability is not the same for different communication models. This is best outlined in guidelines and documents of Internet Architecture Board and the Internet Society. A summary will be offered in future posts.