Microsoft IoT Expo will take place on October 13 and 14, and Cathy Yeh, Principal PM Manager, Cloud + Enterprise Product Group, Internet of Things Development Center of Microsoft Taiwan, made a brief suggestion which points straight at the core: Taiwan has all the necessary conditions for developing the IoT ecosphere; it only lacks "integration". The purpose of Microsoft IoT Expo is to inject smartization, internationalization, and offering products as services concepts into the industry to expedite the formulation of the IoT ecosphere.
By looking at the environment of the IT industry, it offers a comprehensive industrial supply chain, possesses outstanding R&D talent, and has wafer foundries, IC design, PCB, and network module industrial clusters all within a 1.5-hour drive radius; these criteria provide Taiwan's IT industry with many advantages such as the time to market, innovative designs, and effective cost-control, which become the most important incentives in drawing international partners.
Taiwan's Two Major IoT Niche Sectors: Internet of Vehicles and Smart Manufacturing
The persuasive electric vehicle (PEV) developed in conjunction by MIT's Media Lab in the United States and the Institute for Information Industry (III) is a typical example.
The unmanned, smart PEV was constructed based on light-weight bicycle frames, and 90% of its R&D and production were completed jointly by Taiwanese companies including Pacific Cycles. Most of the prototype vehicle's parts were manufactured by Taiwanese companies except for the chassis, electronic controls, and the control system which were provided by MIT.
A core member of the 12-member R&D team composed of mainly MIT students was Chia-Liang Lin, whose background included architecture, electromechanical integration, and design of driverless vehicles. This project brought together Taiwan's R&D talents, industry's manufacturing and R&D capabilities, as well as international partners from MIT.
Through this collaborative project, the bicycle industry, which has already gained international competitiveness, was able to expand their experience in IoV through understanding artificial intelligence designs such as deep learning.
IoV (including transportation and logistics) and smart manufacturing are two areas of IoT development in Taiwan valued by Microsoft. As a result, Microsoft teamed up with III and invited Professor Kent Larson, a smart city specialist from MIT's Media Lab, to present a keynote speech at the Microsoft IoT Expo. In addition, the Expo's Innovation Workshop will also showcase innovative service designs and applications of related technologies such as driverless vehicles and Microsoft's artificial intelligence.
International Business Opportunities can Only be Grasped with "Rapid" Concentration of Products
Cross-domain and cross-border integration are necessary to grasp business opportunities on the global market. Cathy Yeh stated that "Many of Taiwan's IoT products are still in the pilot stage"; the main concern in terms of development is the inability to develop commercial applications.
Therefore, Microsoft hopes to help the industry understand the "incentives" for corporate clients' development strategies and abandon wild concepts in order to concentrate on products to meet market demands.
Microsoft's assistance include bringing together supply with demand in order to shorten the development time for products or services, and more importantly, the continued supply of platforms and tools to build an open IoT technology platform to allow faster and easier system interfacing.
In addition, Cathy Yeh reminds us that in order to succeed in the international market, the product must be stable for replication. When the R&D team successfully creates a new solution, the next step is to consider: Can it be marketed worldwide?
Take IoV as an example, system stability of connecting ten thousand vehicles should be the same as connecting a hundred vehicles in order for it to be eligible for a wide range of applications and to be marketed globally.
Smartization Provides a Common Language for Different Disciplines
The biggest challenge in searching for partners in the IoT era is to communicate knowledge across different domains: Smart agriculture must integrate agriculture with IoT, and smart factories must transform an instructor's experiences and intuition into standardized system languages suitable for all.
Breaking the boundaries between different disciplines relies on the openness and standardization of the IT platform. Microsoft acts as translator between IT and OT to allow them to understand each other and make integration easier.
Providing Products as Services Adds Value to Services
If a price quotation is to be issued for an IoT product, creativity, which is an intangible element, would be an important item on the list. Domestic companies are great at profit-seeking as they charge clients in accordance with the costs of raw materials and man-hours, but they are relatively weak in describing and packaging the intangible elements such as creative services; however, providing products as services will be an important source of income in the IoT era. Companies must enhance their capabilities in describing and packaging in order to add value to their services. Microsoft can serve as the partner for companies who require smartization, internationalization, and offer products as services as we advance toward the IoT era.
The World's First Microsoft IoT Expo will take place on October 13-14, please visit website: http://iotexpo.azurewebsites.net/ for more information.
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