Internet of Things Drives Acquisitions, Channel Preparations

The Internet of Things was probably the most hyped technology of 2014, with market forecasts reaching $19 trillion. That's not happening yet. But in the first half of 2015, the potential of IoT drove a number of industry and channel developments, including acquisitions, vendor spending on development and channel partner preparation.

In March, for example, IBM said it would spend $3 billion over four years developing a portfolio of cloud services and software aimed at IoT and weather-related technology. In June, Intel struck a deal to acquire custom-design semiconductor manufacturer Altera for $16.7 billion, widely seen as a move to bolster its IoT business. In April, Intel bought Lantiq, a smart-home broadband chipmaker, for the same reason. And at the Consumer Electronics Show, Qualcomm demonstrated connected devices for urban areas.

The preparations extended to the channel. Cisco offered channel partners an Internet-of-Everything playbook that provides blueprints and other resources for partners building IoT vertical industry practices. And Aeris Communications launched a partner program that brings IoT network connectivity services to the channel using a recurring revenue model.