At an event today in San Francisco Innovation Center, Verizon Communications, Inc. announced its global strategy to simplify the Internet of Things (IoT) to accelerate market adoption.

Included in the plan is ThingSpace, the company’s new IoT platform which will serve as place for developers to create apps, customers to better manage their devices, partners to market their services, and Verizon to launch integrated vertical solutions simply, in an open environment.

“Continued innovation in smart cities, connected cars and wearables demonstrates that IoT is the future for how we will live and work,” said Mike Lanman, senior vice president Enterprise Products at Verizon. “Despite the exciting potential, IoT is still too complex, too fragmented, too expensive to connect and too hard to scale. Success in that future relies on a leader that can cut through the complexity and change the IoT model. That’s where Verizon comes in. With our experience in networks, devices, platforms and applications, we are taking a holistic approach to simplifying adoption to expand the IoT market from millions to billions of connections.”

Verizon also highlighted how it has been collaborating with other companies in the IoT space. Starting with Intel Corp., Verizon helped turn the family-owned winery, Hahn Family Wines, into a smart agricultural platform that utilizes sensor data and analytics to effectively conserve water and energy, and at the same time prevent diseases from plaguing the vineyard and lowering operating costs. The end result? Increased and consistently predictable crop yields.

Other projects include a team up with microcontroller supplier Renesas Electronics Corp. to enable IoT manufacturers to embed Verizon’s IoT technology in the early design process and scale quickly; R F Xcel Corp. utilizes Verizon’s Intelligent Track and Trace to provide near real-time monitoring of product environments; and Innova EV Car Share fleet of all-electric vehicles is powere by Verizon Share, an app that makes it easy to find people to share rides with.

You can read the full release here.

Photo by LarsZi