Can the Internet of Everything make you a better cook?
That’s one of the questions CNBC host Jon Fortt, Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf, and a group of leading consumer-product makers debated on stage at the 2015 International CES this week. Their wide-ranging discussion covered everything from cars to dishwashers to wireless glucose monitors.
Phil Abram, General Motors’ chief infotainment officer, Jan Brockmann, the CTO of appliance maker Electrolux, and Jeroen Tas, CEO of Philips Healthcare Informatics Solutions and Services each spoke about how mobile technology is changing the way they make consumer products. The goal, Brockmann said, is to have products that improve your life—such as smart kitchen appliances that anticipate and respond to your needs, thereby making you a better chef.
The Internet of Everything “is at a point of experimentation,” Mollenkopf said. “People are trying to figure out what are these new categories, and how they are going to work.”
“That’s going to take a robust mobile infrastructure,” he said. “You really need to be able to bridge all the places that people take their devices. That requires a blend of almost every technology you can think of.”
Abram spoke about how smart mobile technology is helping GM send the most relevant, timely information to a driver’s display. Tas described a future in which people with health issues would have connected devices customized for their conditions.
There’s work to be done before IoE reaches its full potential. “It’s still early,” Mollenkopf said. One of the improvements he expects to see over the next two years is more peer-to-peer based services that help devices communicate with one another.
“Things will be connected,” Mollenkopf said. “The question is what they will do.”
