Internet of Things enters golden era for rapid growth


The emergence of the idea - Internet of Things, to a great extent, benefits from the annual internet report of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 2005 titled by the internet of things. According to the description of ITU, in the era of internet of things, by building a short-distance mobile transceiver into various daily consumptions, the human being will gain a new communication dimension in the information and communication world, extending from the communication among human beings to the communication between human being and things and among things.

The industry of internet of things is featured by long industrial chain and involvement in various industrial groups, with an application covering almost all industries. According to the current requirements for the internet of things, in recent years, hundreds of millions of sensors and electronic tags are demanded by the market. This will greatly advance the production of information technology elements and at meanwhile add a great number of employment. On the China International Internet of Things Conference opened in Shanghai on June 22, 2010, it was pointed out; the internet of things would become the trillion-RMB-level emerging industry in the global information communication industry. Till 2020, there will be 50 billion terminals in the world that will be connected to the internet of things. On the China First International Internet of Things Exhibition held on November 15, 2010, according to the annual report of the internet of things in China, the market scale of the internet of things in 2010 would exceed RMB200 billion yuan and would reach RMB750 billion yuan till 2015, with an annual compound growth rate of over 30 percent.


The allocation of the internet of things is in formation


Hu Qiheng, the director-general of the China Internet Society feels optimistic about the future of the internet of things in China. He said, in recent years, the industry of internet of things in China developed rapidly. The population of netizens is the largest in the world. The basis has been built for the development of the industry of internet of things in future. At present, the industry of internet of things has wide application demands and fields and the potential market scale is huge. The industry of internet of things will drive the synchronized development of a series of industries including sensors; microelectronics and video identification system while its development, thus bringing huge productivity effect of industrial group.

Now, America and the EU are making huge investment on deep research of the internet of things. China is also paying close attention to the study on the internet of things. On October 10, 2010, The Decision of the State Council on Accelerating Cultivation and Development Of Strategic Emerging Industries was published. In this decision, the internet of things, as an important sector in the new generation information technology, was listed as the first seven national strategic emerging industries that will be cultivated rapidly. This indicates that the internet of things is listed into the national development strategy, becoming an important milestone in the development of the internet of things in China.

China, as a big nation of Internet in the world, will make key breakthrough in such aspects as policy market, technical standard and commercial application surrounding the industrial chain of internet of things in future, and build a global industrial highland. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), with the cooperation of relevant departments, is carrying out research on the new generation information technology, with the purpose to make policies and measures to support the development of the new generation information technology.

The development process of RFID and internet of things in China can be traced back to the year of 2004. In the past five years, many application projects are carried out one by one. But such development is relatively slow and hard. Entering 2010, as greatly driven by the government at each level, the application and demonstration projects regarding internet of things began to develop rapidly. The most representative project should be the Shanghai World Expo. Under the active promotion of Shanghai government, the World Expo becomes a typical demonstration project in relation to the comprehensive application of the internet of things technology. Things, such as 70 million tickets with RFID chips, 3 million cell phone tickets with integration of RFID and SIM card technology, and the vehicle management, rubbish management and food safety tracing system realized by using RFID and internet of things technology, all make people really understand that internet of things is not just an idea, instead, it has already come to our life. Under the great promotion of the government, the application and demonstration projects of RFID and internet of things got rapid development in smart traffic, mobile payment and civil management in 2010.

Seize the initiative of development

The popularization of internet of things is facing many practical problems. According to the analysis of the industrial experts, these problems are mainly about the disunity of standards, low safety performance, high cost and lack of key technology.

The internet of things standard is regarded a key factor for the rapid development of the internet of things in China. Zhao Houlin, the deputy secretary-general of ITU, expressed, currently, internet of things just began to develop and the international system had not been formed. China should hold the opportunity, actively participate in the promotion of the standardization, and finally introduce the internet of things standard of China to the whole world. With the improved efforts of the government in promoting the development of internet of things, the establishment of the internet of things standard in China in 2010 is getting more and more attention from all levels of the society. On June 9, 2010, the China internet of things standard joint workgroup was formed in Beijing. Till now, 14 ministries, 24 standardization organizations and 17 industrial associations have participated in this work group.

In 2010, China’s RFID and internet of things industry still didn’t make obvious breakthrough in the aspects of key technology breakthrough and key product R&D. There is still big difference compared with the world leading level. The low key technical competence and few leading products are the critical problems that restrict the development of RFID and internet of things in China and are also the key breakthrough point in the development of RFID and internet of things industry in future.

At the initial development period of the internet of things, in consideration of high cost and low market recognition, most users held a wait-and-see attitude and the commercial mode of internet of things still stayed in a searching period. It is hard to establish an effective industrial environment just by the investment from the government. Only by establishing an effective commercial mode can the industrial development enter a healthy circulation. The large scale of commercial application of the internet of things should be realized step by step. He Jifeng, the academician of China Academy of Sciences expressed, we should take a measure in the commercial application process, that is, it is supported by the state and driven by big projects; at the meantime, we should also develop the commercial mode advanced by the public demands.

In 2010, the internet of things in China has developed into the strategic allocation and planning period. Under such circumstance, it is worth believing, from 2011, during the new five-year planning period, the internet of things will develop into the gold five years.