Qualcomm executives, speaking at the 2013 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, are pushing AllJoyn hard this week as the new open-source platform that will bring every part of our lives together: from appliances, to lighting, to home theaters and smartphones.
The Internet is only a few decades old and has already drastically changed the way we live our lives. And like the people who were around for the introduction of the similarly disruptive printing press, it's hard for us to imagine just how ingrained in every part of our lives this new technology is going to become.
It may be hard for us, but that’s why the folks at Qualcomm, who manufacture and sell the wireless chips in most smartphones and tablets, get paid the big bucks: to imagine that future and make it happen.
Qualcomm’s multi-titled Rob Chandhok –– president of Qualcomm Internet Services, president of the Qualcomm Innovation Center, senior vice president of Qualcomm Technologies –– has been speaking in Barcelona about what he envisions for the “Internet of Everything.”
The new wireless protocol, AllJoyn, will be open to be used by other developers and hardware manufacturers. Chandhok compares it to Bluetooth or NFC, in that one company invents it, but everyone uses it as a common industry standard.
AllJoyn is intended to provide one simple protocol to handle communication between smartphones, climate control systems, home theater systems and televisions, even appliances like refrigerators and dishwashers.
Chandhok predicts some devices will begin to appear on store shelves by the end of this year, though it may take longer, a few years, for items with a longer shelf life, like larger appliances, to jump on the AllJoyn bandwagon.
But Qualcomm’s in it for the long haul, predicting ubiquity a decade from now, and the company will be prepared. Until then, Chandhok says, Qualcomm will be focusing on making sure it is as simple and intuitive as possible, which is what really matters.
“If it’s useful, users will want it,” Chandhok said. “If it’s annoying, users won’t want it.”
