Given that the number of connected devices is expected to grow from 1 to 50 billion over the next 10 years, the number of connected solutions must expand at a similar rate. This represents a tremendous opportunity for companies that can quickly develop solutions to the end customer.

The proliferation of connected devices and sensors are creating a huge demand for new Machine to Machine applications (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT). While the development of information and communication technology industry is rapidly collapsing boundaries, border between IoT and object communication has been broken down. Sensors are playing a key role, which are attached to everywhere such as in the door to find out visitors, or physical descriptions of the owner’s smartphone.

First ever marketplace for the IoT

Developers are increasingly building applications that display sensor data, served up by analytics. These applications could be data visualization dashboards based on Tableau, Qlikview, Microstrategy, and others, or custom-built rich Internet applications for usage-based insurance, fleet management, proactive monitoring, and more.

ThingWorx, provider of the first application development platform for the connected world, announced first ever ThingWorx Marketplace for developers, hardware and software providers, to build value-added IoT/M2M components and make them available to a broad range of companies.

The platform will initially be accessible by ThingWorx partners, independent hardware and software vendors, and third party developers. It combines the key functionality of Web 2.0, search, and social collaboration, and applies it to the M2M world, which includes connected products, machines, sensors and industrial equipment. Enterprises and developers will be able to leverage the marketplace in building developed applications, application templates, analytics, visualizations and services.

“We are excited about the launch of the ThingWorx Marketplace,” stated Russ Fadel, CEO of ThingWorx. “With the predicted 50 billion connected ‘things’ by 2020, we believe there will need to be at least 5 million applications created to drive value. Our Marketplace will provide the next significant improvement in application development efficiency by providing a global market with the building blocks necessary to rapidly assemble these applications.”

The ThingWorx Marketplace puts on the table a wide range of components, services and PaaS Partners including widgets, analytics, application templates, device connectors, protocol adapters and integrations to device clouds, provisioning platforms, enterprise systems and big data stores for developers to integrate with other systems, devices, industries and partners in a quick, seamless, and highly intuitive way.

IoT PaaS and open platform for developers

With the development of IoT, more items will be connected to the global network, thereby creating new opportunities in the field of big data, cloud computing, security, intelligence and performance management, opening new and broader perspective and enhancing the quality of life of the population.

Xively claims to be the creator of the first public cloud platform for the commercial IoT and is integrating Linear’s ARM-based Dust Networks SmartMesh IP wireless sensor networking Starter Kit with Xively Cloud Services. This supports developers and OEMs with an end-to-end IoT solution from initial prototyping and validation through wide-scale commercial deployment and management.

Xively’s IoT public cloud, web-based tools and developer resources give developers standards-based services and tools, elastic scalability, and intuitive lifecycle management capabilities to rapidly meet market demands for compelling connected products and solutions. In addition, Xively’s PaaS solution provides the developer with the Xively Jumpstart Kit, which combines the functionality of Xively with the integrated platform to use ARM chips. The objective is to provide developers with an agile tool that allows developers to focus attention on innovation and development rather than on infrastructure.

The rapid growth of the IoT drives the demand for open platforms and multi-sector that can help companies reduce time to market, better manage costs and provide new capabilities for embedded devices. Oracle thinks that the launched of Oracle Java Embedded product portfolio including Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.3 and Oracle Java ME Software Development Kit (SDK) 3.3 simplifies the development of applications and create new market opportunities for the M2M and IoT ecosystem.

The Java Platform ME platform provides strong support for embedded architectures chip from market leaders and new binaries for development frameworks based on ARM architecture, including the Raspberry Pi and the Keil STM32 F200 Evaluation Board devices based on ARM Cortex-M. Oracle also launched the Oracle Java Platform Integrator program to provide partners with the ability to customize the Oracle Java ME Embedded in order to achieve different types of devices and market segments.

In addition to evolving IoT gateways, Freescale, ARM and Oracle are working to streamline the development of innovative IoT edge node products under the ARM embed project.

Inside the immense ecosystem of more than 9 million Java developers in the world, this new program will allow greater flexibility for the development and implementation of embedded Java IoT services and products.

Smarter applications for a smarter world

Sensor data is being created all around us and it affects almost every industry. Enterprises are increasingly recognizing the value to be extracted from big data, including semi-structured data generated by machines and sensors. Ericsson Labs believe that the REST paradigm is the way forward for integrating Smart Objects on the Web and the Internet. The lab is working with Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) on defining a new protocol for REST in Smart Objects called CoAP – Constrained Application Protocol. CoAP is a binary HTTP with simplified transport capabilities and can be handy in reading sensors, doing actuation, and resource publication and discovery.

IPSO Alliance, an alliance of 60+ companies and organizations from North America, Europe and Asia promoting and spearheading the development of IP in Smart Objects, have recently participated in number of events to build next generation of smart IoT devices including smart plugs, light bulbs, temperature, luminosity sensors and others.

The industry has also reached a significant inflection point where we can see IoT applications for a smarter world. Libelium has published a list of top 50 sensor applications related to smart cities, smart environment, smart water, smart metering, securities and emergencies, retail, logistics, industrial control, smart agriculture, smart animal farming, home automation and e-health.