Pepcom Preview – Mobile dominates as platform

Holiday 2014 – At the Pepcom Holiday Preview in SF the theme for the event was Zombies and that theme carried over into the operating system choices for the products. Currently in Zombie mode was Windows. Caught between the EOL of Windows XP, still IT centric Windows 7 and not working on most consumer hardware without a touchscreen Windows 8.1 – the platform appears as one of the largest installed spaces but is moderately dormant for supporting new products in the consumer space. Historically, connected devices first came out with control and management on Windows, the next phase was iOS now the releases are coming out on Android.

The new world of consumer electronics is very heavily focused on IoT and the capture and transfer of data from some sort of sensor to a smartphone to the cloud. A number of the products such as digital door locks with viewing cameras, were initially launched in 2012 driving a Wifi network in the home to feed the images and information at the door to a screen on a PC. The latest version of the product posts the feed and alarm signals being sent directly to a smart phone by being a direct IP device.

Fujitsu was showing their new versions of the ix100 and ix500 scanners. These features wireless or wired connectivity. The wireless can support both connection through a wifi network or a direct to device connection. This allows smartphones and tablets to directly connect in a secure manner to receive the scanned data, and then the resulting PDF information can be sent to the cloud.

Kennsington was showing new Bluetooth accessories, keyboard and cases for tables and smartphones as well as a new presenter control. The presenter product is a big step as a lot of people have stopped taking laptops to do presentations, and instead are connecting the projectors or big screen TVs to the micro hdmi connector on the phone to drive the big screens.

Iridium Go smartphone to satellite module

Similarly, moving the mobile phone to the front of the platform, even satellite phone maker Iridium was showing their new WiFi connect satellite modem that allows a regular cell phone to connect and make a satellite phone call. This allows for retaining all the features of the smartphone on a rented short term satellite line. In most cases, this option results in less per minute charges that traveling with an alternate suppliers and paying roaming charges.

All of these products, plus a new breathalyzer and other door oriented products all came out a few years back with the lead platform as Windows and then they migrated to mobile. At this point it looks like mobile is the lead for the development platform for launch followed by the PC.