IoT has received an enormous amount of attention in recent years, rapidly growing with many smart devices already integrated into consumers’ everyday lives. The number of connected devices in India is expected to reach 2.7 billion by 2020, with Nasscom predicting the economic impact of these devices reaching up to USD 15 billion next year. The market potential of IoT can be enhanced with clear interoperability standards among devices.

“This task force is a big step forward in building awareness about the potential of IoT in India. We will be working closely with government organizations like the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), Telecommunication Engineering Center (TEC) and others in defining IoT standards for India,” said Mr. Sudhanshu Mittal, Director – Industry 4.0 at NASSCOM CoE IoT and member of the OCF India Ecosystem Task Force.

The Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) is a leading open IoT standards development organization. Globally, it is one of the biggest IoT consortiums with 400+ members working towards solving the IoT Standards gap. Samsung being one of the founding members of the OCF, since 2014, has been contributing to the OCF standards development and also adopting OCF specifications in its IoT device ecosystem.

Dr. Aloknath De, Chief Technology Officer, Samsung R&D Institute, Bengaluru said, “Unlocking the true potential of IoT through interoperability will unveil new possibilities for the technology to transform consumers’ lives. As the adoption of IoT increases, Samsung R&D India will continue its mission to provide interoperability for consumers, businesses and developers both in India and around the world.”

In 2017, Samsung R&D Bengaluru started working towards setting up a local chapter of the OCF in India. The vision was to drive the Indian IoT industry through the benefits of standardization and help Indian SMEs generate revenue from IoT services by reducing the lead time for development. The journey began by identifying and reaching out to more than 60+ Indian IoT companies including startups developing products and services for the India market to gauge awareness about IoT standards.

One of the first events where OCF participated in India was the IoT Symposium in Bengaluru in November 2017. Samsung R&D Bengaluru showcased its range of OCF-Certified connected devices interoperating with the each other through the Samsung SmartThings platform.

For those of us in the tech and related industries, the start of each new year represents a period for our own personal moments of reflection, but also as professionals and those passionate about technology to share and envision together the latest in technology innovation at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

For the past several years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has remained the industry’s biggest buzzword for its promise of delivering seamless connectivity across the multiple devices and technologies that we interact with in our daily lives – from our smartphones to smart TVs to Family Hub refrigerator to even our cars. Yet while the vision has been alluring, with IoT and related technologies still maturing, the promise has always remained ‘a few years off’.

At CES 2018, our aim, at Samsung, will be to show you the work we’ve done to change that, and to begin delivering on the promise of a connected world, today.

Across the many and various devices consumers interact with in their places of business, homes, and while on the go, each is typically encumbered by a different setup process, password to remember, and interface to learn and manage, which has made the connected experience anything but easy.

At Samsung, we decided to do something about this, and at this year’s CES, we’ll be sharing our breakthroughs to make the IoT experience easy and intuitive for you, which has involved delivering seamless connectivity between any device through a single experience, backed by an integrated ecosystem to manage all the devices in close, fluid synchronization.

The connected experience we will be introducing also is powered by a personalized intelligence interface, with the aim of ensuring you are able to tap into all the potential and power this connectedness provides, as easily as if you were flipping a switch. Understanding that innovation on this scale and delivering on a truly connected world can’t happen in a silo, we’ve also worked closely with industry partners as part of the largest IoT standardization body, the Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF), which I will also be sharing about further at the show.

Until now, the promise of a world of connected devices has remained too fragmented, and as result too complex and difficult for consumers to navigate or practically take advantage of. However, a connected world, should be anything but. It should work for you, and make life easier for you. I couldn’t be more excited to share with you further on how Samsung is bringing this vision to reality now in just a few days time at CES 2018.

The writer is President and Head of Consumer Electronics Division, Samsung Electronics