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Interview with Curtis Sasaki, Samsung

Earlier this year, we partnered with Samsung to create the Kontakt.io Gateway. This new kind of hardware required an incredibly smart and powerful IoT platform in order to function, and the ARTIK 5 was just what we needed. Samsung has been transforming and investing in the IoT space for some time, and their tools are playing a huge role in shaping the future of technology.

Click here to watch on-demand webinar Engineering Hardware: the story of Kontakt.io’s Gateway and Samsung ARTIK™

That’s why we sat down with Curtis Sasaki, VP of Ecosystems and IoT General Manager at Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center, to discuss Samsung’s role in the development of IoT as well as the future of beacon technology.

  • All of the leading brands are already racing to lead the Internet of Things revolution. What’s Samsung’s advantages over competitors?
    We believe we can make it much easier to develop, deploy, and support IoT as Samsung has spent a lot of time putting together an end-to-end solution. From the hardware side, putting together a highly integrated module with radios in very small form factors is challenging for many companies, but if you combine this with the need to think through end-to-end security, a cloud that provides IoT functionality including device management, and a powerful orchestration engine can help developers focus on their value versus having to build all the plumbing from scratch.
  • Which industries will be profoundly redefined by the IoT?
    It will probably be all industries, not just a single one. From what we can tell, every company is looking at how connected devices and services can transform their businesses. Currently ARTIK is seeing the strongest interest from the sectors of connected health, industrial, smart city, smart home, and automotive.
  • What factors will bring the greatest benefits of the IoT to enterprise?
    Access to data and the ability to interact better with customers. As businesses accelerate with IoT providing the platform, they will be justified in frequently engaging with customers to provide more long term value.
  • How does ARTIK tackle security and data privacy?
    The ARTIK modules provide hardware-based Secure Element, which works with the ARM TrustZone and a software Secure Execution Environment to provide “bank level” security end-to-end. Other advancements to security features include secure boot / OS, KMS, and secure easy-onboarding.
    • What do you regard as the most interesting use of the IoT?
      There are many – from simple to more complex. Anything from intelligent street lighting with sensors and LEDs transforming parking, monitoring gas leaks or earthquakes, to energy management systems following generation to delivery. I’m also very excited about how cities are leveraging IoT to deal with urbanization and the challenges of transportation, waste management, and energy.
  • Can you share one piece of advice for business leaders interested in the IoT?
    [Tweet “You need to be “where the puck is going” and not stay where you are. “]
    Technology is getting simpler to develop and deploy, but you need to think about transformative business models and really breakthrough use cases.
  • Will Bluetooth continue to be a major language in this space?
    Absolutely, though it depends on the mobile app experience.
  • How do you see the role of beacons in the connected future?
    Location-based services have become an expectation and are not a future request. It’s already changed the way consumers search, discover, and get to things. Beacons provide fine grain navigation (especially around indoor) and have also already changed how retail shops provide notifications to consumers.

The challenge we have is not bombarding consumers with offer after offer but to rather personalize both the navigation (especially along a route) and provide targeted information based on context.

 
 


Engineering Hardware: the story of Kontakt.io’s Gateway and Samsung ARTIK™
In 2016, we hosted a webinar with Ashish Sethi, Samsung’s Strategic Business Development Manager and Lukasz Szelejewski Head of Hardware at Kontakt.io. They discussed how collaboration allowed two companies to develop innovative IoT technology.
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