Samsung wants IoT to be as easy as flipping a switch and is dedicated to making that a reality. Today during its CES 2018 press conference the company revealed its big plans for the Internet of Things and how it plans to use it to simplify everyday life, which includes things like uniting all of its IoT applications such as Samsung Connect, Smart Home, and Smart View by the Spring of 2018, bringing everything together in a united SmartThings app to allow single-app use and control of any SmartThings-enabled product from smartphones, TV, and even the car.
This is likely to be a good first step in making IoT products and the technology as a whole more accessible to everyone, something which Samsung feels isn’t the case right now due to the complex nature of the IoT landscape which Samsung calls “fragmented” and says that the current IoT ecosystem is a “barrier for adoption,” but Samsung also wants to go beyond this and vows to have all of its products IoT ready by the year 2020. Samsung notes that it’s already been hard at work towards accomplishing this goal and some of its recently announced products seem to reflect this. For example, just over the last 24 hours Samsung announced the new generation of the Family Hub fridge that comes with its Bixby digital assistant baked in, and it announced the Samsung Flip digital flip chart that’s aimed at collaboration in the workspace.
One of the bigger issues that Samsung believes is holding IoT back in terms of easy access for most consumers is that there are no common industry standards. It wants to change this and is working with multiple partners including the Open Connectivity Foundation in hopes of doing so. Of course, part of making IoT easier to access and simplifying the everyday life, according to Samsung, is to expand the availability of Bixby and it’s doing this by integrating into more products this year, which will allow consumers to control more products around the home by voice and through their smartphones. Samsung has already invested quite a bit into the IoT industry, stating that it put forth around $14 Billion in research and development for IoT in 2017 alone, and it plans to invest more this year and beyond while also pushing forward with its other plans to standardize things, with a main goal being to give consumers the option of having everything inter-connected through its IoT ready products within the next few years.