Verizon on Wednesday announced the immediate launch of a new developer platform for the Internet of Things (IoT).
Dubbed ThingSpace, the new platform is a one-stop shop for developers across the globe to gain access to hundreds of APIs, as well as Verizon’s Wide-Area Network (WAN)and big data analytics engine. The goal of ThingSpace, Verizon representatives said, is to bring together all the disparate elements of IoT development and essentially create an “easy button” for developers. The platform is aimed at helping developers create solutions in five major areas, including energy, healthcare, agricultural technology, smart cities and the sharing economy.
“Continued innovation in smart cities, connected cars and wearables demonstrates that IoT is the future for how we will live and work,” said Verizon’s senior vice president of Enterprise Products Mike Lanman. “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.”
According to Lanman, developers using ThingSpace will be able to easily “create, test, deploy, manage and market solutions to the IoT industry,” whether they’re a Verizon customer or not. Lanman said ThingSpace launched today with hundreds of APIs that are in high demand among developers, but noted Verizon has plans to drastically increase the number of available APIs into the thousands within the next two quarters.
Alongside ThingSpace, Verizon also announced the immediate launch of a new chipset and pending launch of a new IoT core that will help new IoT devices access its WAN network at a lower cost. The IoT core is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2016 and will give the WAN network the ability to scale to services the billions of connected devices that are expected by 2020, Lanman said.
Lanman said the network – which currently covers 92 countries and is expected to expand around the globe by the end of 2016 – will create more opportunities for international collaboration and distribution.
Verizon also plans to commercialize its big data analytics engine – which currently processes 1.5 trillion transactions each month – for the IoT space, Lanman said.