My prediction for 2016 is that the Internet of Things will be in the same confused state on 31st Dec 2016 as it was on Jan 1st 2016. When I say confused I mean there will be no unifying standard and designers will be choosing between the technologies, components and suppliers that best suit their application but will have no guarantee of compatibility with any other product. This is from Graham Pitcher, Group Editor of New Electronics:

What we have seen, as an industry, over the last few decades is that proprietary standards are bad. And yet they keep on being developed because there is nothing 'official' available.

It's certainly happening in the IoT at the moment. There are at least five alliances - OneM2M, IPSO, LPRA, Wi-SUN and LoRA - another five alliances that set standards - OASIS, OMA, ZigBee, OMG and IoT-GSI - plus a range of standards bodies - ETSI, IETF, IEEE, ITU and 3GPP, as well as Asian and US bodies.

Meanwhile, at least 10 generic application layers are available, along with six device protocols, eight networking protocols and a raft of MAC/PHYs.

Designers, to put it bluntly, don't know which horse to back. So what is the way forward?

Market analysts predict there will be 50billion devices connected to the IoT within the next few years.

Professor William Webb, chief executive of the Weightless SIG, told the recent New Electronics conference at the Electronics Design Show that he believes that figure won't be reached until a common communications approach is developed. The problem, however, is that while the industry waits for that consensus to emerge - heads to be banged together, if you like - there will be even more methods of communication and even more market fragmentation.

Bluetooth are adding functionality during 2016 aimed at IoT, extended distnace, higher speed, and a mesh capability.

Bluetooth Technology to Gain Longer Range Faster Speed Mesh Networking in 2016

These features will, I predict, push bluetooth towards a bigger share of IoT market if it means we can design compatible products. We need the mesh to be open to connection unlike zigbee that allows products to be incompatible and non-meshable.

Bluetooth are adding functionality during 2016 aimed at IoT, extended distnace, higher speed, and a mesh capability.

Bluetooth Technology to Gain Longer Range Faster Speed Mesh Networking in 2016

These features will, I predict, push bluetooth towards a bigger share of IoT market if it means we can design compatible products. We need the mesh to be open to connection unlike zigbee that allows products to be incompatible and non-meshable.