A lot of conversation this week about other IoT manufacturers, and the competition XPED is facing.
I had a look at one which, in particular, kept being held up as the answer to all things IoT, and thought I would investigate the system that Samsung has developed to see what the reality is.
After a couple of hours being disappointed with that, I had a look at a couple of the others, and was equally amazed at the results of their work.
A few of the points of superiority held by XPED:
- Ability to work with no internet connection – this amazed me – no other IoT system that I could find will continue to operate once its cloud connection has been removed. How vulnerable does that make them?
- Use of NFC to register ‘things’ – all the other systems register the ‘thing’ for the first time directly from the hub – which makes it very complicated if you are registering multiple things, or have a very large environment. The process is also slow and difficult compared to ‘bump’ your new ‘thing’ with your mobile phone, and name your new device with ADRC.
- Positive feedback- nobody else seems to have worked out that it is comforting to know that your ‘thing’ can hear you when you send it a command, and the response from the ‘bump’ process is a lot more obvious than having to deal with whatever your hub can see over its entire range when you tell it to find new ‘things’ – especially with those ones in the neighbour’s house that are in range.
- Simple data file format (RML) – an XML based program, which really just paints a picture of the interface for a ‘thing’ on your phone app (or browser) – simple language, and the vendor can make the app do whatever they want. Infinite flexibility. This means that it will work on your phone, computer, whatever. Most other vendors require a cloud connection to do anything like this, and many do not work through a pc.
Most of the vendors have admitted to problems with their various solutions – Google has given up and made theirs open protocol, Samsung has major issues with its cloud platform, and of course Apple is not talking to anybody else. There are dozens of other solutions around, but none of them have the whole thing neatly stitched up like XPED with ADRC – the way the mobile phone comes into the picture makes it a very elegant solution.
Partnerships with Telink, Intel, Microsoft and Amazon will put XPED in exactly the right place, with complimentary technology for the things that these companies are producing.
And it is a much better place than those inhabited by most of the other IoT players
(20min delay)