It is estimated that by the year 2020, the Internet of Things (IoT) will consist of approximately 50 billion objects, each with its own embedded computing system, and able to interact with the existing Internet infrastructure. This being the case, the pace of development for the IoT is rapidly outstripping advances made in the areas of today’s electronic devices, especially since it is widely considered that electronic device development is approaching maximum maturity. This has some far-reaching implications for businesses and the marketing strategies which they should adopt in order to stay abreast of the powerful trends now underway.

First, create an IoT roadmap. "With any new technology, there are promising new opportunities but also many challenges. IoT is a journey towards digitization and not a destination, and retailers need to evaluate the business hurdles they may face when adopting IoT. The perfect place to start is to create an IoT roadmap identifying their strategy, what IoT components are needed, the process and operations needed to implement and most importantly, the team that will be apart of making the investment successful," said Sandeep Agarwal, Head of Engineering, Happiest Minds.

As scare-tactic journalism goes, it would be hard to beat this past summer's article about hackers taking remote control of a Wired magazine writer's car. “I was driving 70 mph on the edge of downtown St. Louis,” he wrote. “As the two hackers remotely toyed with the air-conditioning, radio, and windshield wipers, I mentally congratulated myself on my courage under pressure. That's when they cut the transmission.” Scary! Hackers can take over our cars! Our lives are at risk! No, they're not. Stories such as these are catnip to mainstream media and the technophobic public. Unfortunately, they leave out or underplay a …

AT&T Mobility CEO Glenn Lurie and CTIA President Meredith Attwell Baker said that several different elements need to come together to enable the United States to fully take advantage of the Internet of Things, including more spectrum, security and infrastructure and a light-touch regulatory environment that lets wireless companies invest. Speaking at an event at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington, D.C., Baker said that the economic impact of the IoT is "huge" and that it has the potential to improve people's lives in areas as disparate as healthcare, transportation and education. She also noted, though, that CTIA predicts IoT …

If you're a tech-savvy traveler, you've probably used your smartphone to locate an airport gate, restroom or restaurant. Now, entering the busy holiday season, some airports and airlines are hoping to use your smartphone to find you. To do so, they're deploying small Bluetooth-powered beacons that recognize passing devices and deliver (presumably) appropriate information. Whether travelers want to receive those messages or not will likely determine whether they view such systems as enhancing their travel experiences or invading their privacy.

The U.S. Department of Transportation announced Monday the creation of a task force to develop recommendations for a drone operator registration process that will be due by Nov. 20. The task force will be composed of 25 to 30 representatives from the drone and manned aviation industries, the federal government and other stakeholders. It will explore options for a streamlined system that would make registration less burdensome for commercial drone operators and will recommend which aircraft should be exempt from registration due to a low safety risk.

Tech companies and automakers are racing to get more connected cars on the road, but unless consumers have a few grand to spare on a new ride, they're missing out on some of the fuel savings, security, and diagnostic tools that come standard with today's models. The San Francisco–based startup Voyomotive—founded by Peter Yorke and Harald Ekman—found itself wondering about that problem. As the company saw it, cars have steadily become computers on wheels and all that's needed is a single device that can tap into these systems, track the data, take action, and improve the experience.

Ericsson has teamed up with three other suppliers on a suite of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies for the wine-making industry. The consortium of Ericsson, Intel, Telenor Connexion, and MyOmega Systems Technologies aims to build a secure IoT connectivity service that will support "more effective wine production", the company said. The service will allow winemakers to collect data on air and soil humidity and temperature, as well as solar intensity, using IoT sensors along with Intel-based IoT gateways connected to a cloud service. According to the companies, the system can be scaled upwards to cover the largest wine companies and scaled …

Tractica is out with a new report that paints a bright picture for the future of the enterprise wearables market. Enterprise and industrial organizations in a wide range of sectors are increasingly turning to wearable devices as an extension of their technology toolkits, a report summary shared with MMW reads.

According to a few of recent studies, Americans aren’t as aware or accepting of smartphone technology as some may expect. A Harris survey recently found that 64 percent of Americans admit that they aren’t very familiar with smart home technology. Another recent study conducted by Nielson found that only 53 percent of household decision makers report knowing what connected home technology can do. The Harris poll indicated that the most common connected home device is currently wireless speaker systems, which are found in about 17 percent of households. Wireless speakers are followed by smart thermostats (11 percent), smart home security systems (9 …