Things Are Connected To The Internet

In 2008, the number of things/devices connected to the Internet exceed the number of people on earth. By 2020, there will be 50 billion things connected to the Internet. This is according to a joint study by Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group, AT&T and some other research institutions.

Internet of Things is most likely the next biggest thing. It is the most exciting revolution that will impact our daily life and business process, and change our way of living and working. It will yield tremendous opportunities in almost all vertical markets, transportation, utilities, healthcare, education, energy and government. The things and devices connected to the Internet are not just smart phones or tablets, they are EVERYTHING. Here are a list of things that have knowingly been connected to the Internet. The rest will be your imagination.

¨       Smart phones

¨       Tablets and computers

¨       Cows and other animals

¨       Cars and trains

¨       Alarm clocks

¨       Coffee makers

¨       Energy and gas meters

¨       Air conditioners and refrigerators

¨       Wines and jewelries 

¨       Bars and manufactures

¨       Buildings

¨       Sewer systems

¨       Children and human hearts

21st Century is the Century of Smart Cities

A couple of months ago, China Smart City Planning and Development Summit (中国智慧城市规划与建设高峰论坛)  was held in Beijing. So what is Smart City?  Smart City is a set of Smart Solutions from transportation to healthcare, to public safety and security, to building and waste management, to education and city administration (Smart Local Government). It is a Internet of Things to improve the quality of life. 

With the fast development of high-speed broadband infrastructure in China, it is important to look at what will be the real value of this new infrastructure. It is now being built that offers a range of features such as ubiquitousness, affordability, low latency, high speed and high capacity. It will link millions of devices, such as sensors, that will enable the management of environment, traffic, infrastructure, and society as a whole much more efficiently and effectively.

There are three phrases to develop a Smart City. First of all, there is the digital city stage while the city is networked and information are digitized. Secondly, the intelligent city stage that has a new generation of Internet ("Internet of Things") infrastructure built with certain level of intelligence. Finally, it is the smart city stage, while we emphasize more on the real-time communications between people and the city, people and the "Things" are connected which form a better living and eco-friendly environment in harmony.

China wants to lead again. It has been investing billions of dollars each year in new technologies as part of a plan to develop "Smart City" projects around the country. "Internet of Things" is going to be a real game-changer. We should expect to see applications designed, manufactured and deployed across major cities around the country soon in the next 2-3 years.

We are acquiring resources in studying and analyzing the market and solutions. So expect to hear more in the coming months about new development of the Smart City projects.