Scaling Innovation for the IoT Ecosystem of Tomorrow

The age of the Internet of Things is here. You can see it in things as simple as refrigerators that can show you their contents and track your shopping list, and as complex as the ongoing discussion about autonomous vehicles. It is sure to be one of the defining technological advancements of our time.

With IoT, technology has now caught up to our imagination — connecting the physical and digital worlds into a system for smarter living. And the creative minds behind the latest IoT innovations are found not only in Silicon Valley or Seoul, but in all corners of the globe, applying a new way of connected thinking to everyday applications — and to some of our largest shared challenges.

At Samsung, we’re excited about how IoT-enabled devices can become innovative solutions to our daily lives, and wholly committed to IoT as a means to change lives for the better, because the applications and benefits are innumerable. For example, crowd-sourced data from smartphones can provide an early warning system for earthquakes and then coordinate a shutdown of at-risk utilities like gas services. Sensors applied to vehicles like trucks and buses can become mobile data collectors, detecting telltale roadway vibrations, and providing critical data on bridge wear and tear. In the realm of healthcare, today’s IoT is helping seniors age with dignity and a sense of independence within their own homes, instead of at expensive managed-care facilities.

But to truly reach the tremendous potential of the IoT ecosystem, we must allow these emerging technologies to seamlessly connect and scale into a force for transformation. At Samsung, we’ve spent decades developing world-changing technologies and in that time have learned that innovations are best adopted by consumers and brought to scale when they are designed with three principles at the core…to be open, collaborative and human-centered.

We cannot do this alone. We all know that innovation flourishes best when it is open — when people are free to pursue their best ideas and when the brightest minds can come together. Collaboration is therefore also key to realizing the vast opportunities of technology while addressing its challenges of scale.

Samsung has strong roots in the U.S., a global hub for innovation that has allowed these three principles to take hold and bring some of our most forward-thinking products to market. We have been present in the U.S. since 1978 and employ 18,500 people here. It’s also why we committed $1.2 billion to U.S.-based research and development in IoT over the next 4 years.

The United States is our most important market for innovative technologies — a trendsetter for the rest of the world. It’s time that we become a trendsetter in our collective path forward for IoT. With our co-founding partners Intel and the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), we are proud to have launched the National IoT Strategy Dialogue — a collaborative dialogue with government and private sector stakeholders about a national strategy to ensure US leadership in IoT.

There are vast opportunities before us to create not only a smarter world, but a better one. The onus on us as industry leaders is to help government and other invested stakeholders channel the human imagination to bring forward IoT with a human purpose: to improve lives, for real people, everywhere.

For more, visit the Samsung U.S. newsroom.