“Internet of things” lowers costs, increases productivity and allows developing new products offerings

Windows 10 paves the way for users to move into the "Internet of Things" era

Who would have imagined that one day all electronic devices, both personal and professional, and even home appliances will become smart and connected, communicate and interact with each other in order to provide more accurate information and enable better and faster decision making process? All of this has become one step closer to reality with the beginning of the "Internet of Things" era.

These smart and connected “things” through which information is being generated include all existing user devices such as home alarm devices, thermostats, smart TVs, cars, point of sale terminals, ATMs among many other connected devices expected to invade our daily lives in the coming few years besides wearable technology that includes smart watches, smart glasses, and smart sports shoes.

Statistics indicate that there will be 34 billion devices connected to the internet by 2020 and IoT devices will account for 24 billion while traditional computing devices including smartphones, tablets, smart watches will comprise 10 billion, and nearly USD 6 trillion will be spent on IoT solutions over the next five years with businesses being the top adopter of IoT solutions. Experts see that one of the main barriers that might face  ​​the Internet of things is the exponentially growing data volumes that will result from this enormous number of connected things and devices.

Speaking on the Internet of Things, Eng. Rakan Tarabzouni, Head of Windows OS & Devices at Microsoft Arabia said: "What makes IoT unique and powerful is that it liberates users from being bounded by their physical location. This means that people can remotely control and monitor smart devices and appliances they have without having to be located physically at the device’s place. For example, users will be able to run and control lighting systems at their houses before actually reaching home through special Internet applications. IoT enables people to effectively and easily control various devices like home appliances whether they are located near or far. However, the practical definition of the Internet of things is mainly having a huge number of various devices communicating and interacting with each other through Internet Protocol. At Microsoft, we have launched a special IoT Windows 10 edition that allows programmers to develop universal Apps, which serve as an interface for the user in Windows 10 IoT Core edition which features support for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. It is run on mini-computers such as Raspberry Pi 22 and Minnowboard Max whether with or without screens which helps connect them to the Internet. Accordingly, there will be three ways to increase adopting IoT and expanding of the scope of IoT solutions through lowering operating costs, increasing productivity, and expanding to new markets or developing new technology product offerings.

Privacy and data protection remains a key challenge for this technology, but there is a global trend towards setting worldwide standards for IoT networked things that allow devices to understand and interact with each other. Worldwide security spending on the Internet of Things will reach USD 348 million this year which is a 23.7 percent increase from last year’s USD 281.5 million spending. It is expected that worldwide IoT security spend will reach USD 547 million by 2018.

The Internet of Things (IoT) market size in the MENA region is estimated to grow to USD 7.41 billion by 2019, up from USD 2.87 billion last year, which is a compound annual growth rate of 20.9%. A 30 % of this growth will be recorded by the IoT market in Saudi Arabia estimated to grow to USD 2.19 billion by 2019, compared with USD 868 billion in 2015, which is a compound annual growth rate of 20.3%. Connected cars, buildings and connected sectors will be the key IoT trends in the next five years, and will account for 98% of Internet of Things technology revenues things in the kingdom.

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