The Internet of Things has been the talk of the tech industry for months now, but communications chip maker Broadcom thinks the conversation’s just getting started.
“It’s a totally new space. It offers … a massive number of projects and efforts and new ideas,” said Brian Bedrosian, senior director of Broadcom’s embedded wireless business, at a media event in San Francisco on Tuesday night. “There’s no monopoly in any particular market.”
Broadcom has a big stake in IoT because it makes the kinds of chips that will connect many home devices, wearables and industrial sensors to wireless networks. On Wednesday, the company introduced the latest tool it hopes will expand that market, a US$19.99 development kit built around its BCM20737 Bluetooth Smart chip with five built-in sensors and a free Apple iOS app. An Android app is coming Oct. 1.
The WICED Sense Tag, the latest in a line of WICED (Wireless Internet Connectivity for Embedded Devices) kits that launched about two years ago, is designed for app coders and non-technical product developers rather than just engineers, Bedrosian said. It costs less than earlier kits, which have been priced around $80 to $100, and includes software for Bluetooth Smart and the sensors, saving developers hours of work, according to the company.
Pete Deutschman 