Do-It-Yourself M2M Challenges

Following up on my last blog post, I’d like to explore the concept of do-it-yourself (DIY) M2M.

For companies just starting M2M projects, a DIY approach can look attractive.  This holds true for both companies building devices with M2M functionality and for those deploying devices and M2M services. But here’s the challenge, to borrow a quote, “you don’t know what you don’t know” — meaning you don’t know all the pitfalls you may face.

M2M sounds deceptively simple.   Take a device, connect it, and send data to another machine.  That can’t be too difficult, right?  We do this every day with our iPads, laptops, and cell phones. Unfortunately those are all “human” devices as opposed to embedded devices.  It took many years and focused efforts to make connecting to iTunes so easy.  The typical embedded device wasn’t designed to connect from day 1, and that’s where the challenges come into play.

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