Qualcomm is hoping to solve the fragmentation challenges that have plagued the Internet of Things (IoT) space with the launch of Aware, a platform that combines the company’s silicon with a cloud framework and features developer-friendly tools such as open application protocol interfaces (APIs). The goal is to make it easy for enterprises to create customized IoT solutions.
“We are building a ubiquitous IoT platform,” said Jeff Torrance, SVP and general manager of Connected Smart Systems at Qualcomm. “We are not building for a use case.”
Torrance added that although Qualcomm is calling Aware a “platform” it is really something bigger than that. “We are presenting APIs to make it easy for people to access the best technology.”
That technology includes assets from Skyhook and PoLTE Corp. Torrance said that Qualcomm acquired PoLTE, a 5G location tracking firm last year. PoLTE went out of business late last year and said it sold the company’s assets but didn’t reveal any details about the purchaser of those assets.
Qualcomm also acquired Skyhook in May 2022, however, the two companies had been working closely for the past few years on Wi-Fi positioning and location-assistance services.
Torrance said that these assets, when combined with Qualcomm’s existing location technology, make it possible for Aware to provide users with ubiquitous location capabilities that’s always-on but also low power.
Including location-centric data is a differentiator, according to Neil Shah, VP of research at Counterpoint, who said that Qualcomm's offering is more integrated than other platforms because it "sends 'location-centric' data to the cloud in a very secure way directly from the chip," Shah said. "This is one of the first solutions which embeds location sharing capability from chipset level at scale."
Torrance said that Qualcomm believes that it can also provide end-to-end security for IoT because it can secure the data from the silicon to the cloud, alleviating the “handoff issue” that can occur between the device connectivity and the cloud connectivity.
Aware’s open APIs are important because that means existing enterprise software tools can be integrated with Aware. One of the platform’s first integrations will be with Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management software. By integrating with Dynamics 365, Aware customers will be able to track assets and manage inventories. Torrance also said the logistics and supply chain businesses will be the first vertical market that Qualcomm will target with Aware when the platform is commercially available later this year.
Qualcomm has a growing number of hardware and software partners signed up to support Aware including Trimble, TomTom, Tech Mahindra, Microsoft, Kyocera, Maersk and more. These partners have agreed to develop connected solutions tailored to different use cases and different industries. Qualcomm said that by working with a wide range of independent software vendors and systems integrators it believes enterprises will be able to deploy “pre-designed” solutions.
“We’re bringing together the best in tech and developing a big ecosystem,” Torrance said. He added by courting all these different industry partners, Qualcomm believes that it can foster a much larger IoT market than what exists today.
Different monetization scheme
The company also is envisioning a different type of business model for Qualcomm Aware that goes beyond just selling more IoT chipsets. Qualcomm is proposing a subscription-based revenue model for Aware in which the company will continually improve features and performance for Qualcomm Aware managed devices.