Over the Air · 2 Feb 2023 · 43m
Rob Tiffany, Founder of Sustainable Logix, and Bill Flaherty, Director of Hardware Engineering at Very, review 2022 IoT trends and predict 2023 developments. They discuss how the chip shortage forced a shift from locking in specific microcontrollers to using abstraction layers like Zephyr, and highlight the democratization of technology in Ukraine through commercial drones and Starlink. The guests argue that major IoT platform shutdowns (Ericsson, SAP, Google) signal a pivot toward vertical-specific solutions, while predicting that falling sensor prices, edge AI processors like the NXP i.MX 95, and the rise of generative AI will define the coming year.
early-stage companies and companies scaling up
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Chris Gammell and Dave Jones discuss recent industry layoffs at MakerBot, Microchip, and Intel, highlighting the risks of hardware career stability. They critique the fragility of cloud-dependent IoT products, citing Nest's discontinuation of the Revolve, and advocate for local processing and tools like Pi Shift. The conversation also covers Dave's prototype struggles with firmware constraints and Chris's exploration of machine learning via Wekinator.
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Matt Hatton, Founding Partner at Transforma Insights, discusses IoT trends for 2026, focusing on the Communication Service Provider IoT Benchmarking Report and the company's IoT Transition Topics. He highlights three macro trends: coping with price erosion through middleware diversification, the shift toward localization driven by SGP.32, and the rise of single-pane-of-glass platforms. Hatton also analyzes the fragmentation of cellular technologies like NB-IoT and 5G RedCap, and explains how AI is moving from marketing hype to practical applications in video analytics and internal network optimization.
Pavel Hübner, CTO and co-founder of HARDWARIO, discusses the evolution of his company from Big Clown Labs to its current focus on industrial IoT hardware platforms. He details the technical trade-offs between LPWAN technologies like LoRaWAN and NB-IoT, and explains the strategic shift to Zephyr RTOS for scalable, low-power firmware development. Hübner also addresses the severe challenges of the chip shortage, describing how HARDWARIO used automated scraping to secure components, and offers advice on cash flow management for hardware startups.
Chris Gammell of Contextual Electronics and Dave Jones of EEVblog discuss the new Art of Electronics X Chapters book, the supply chain disruptions caused by the coronavirus shutdown in China, and the discontinuation of Particle's mesh networking ecosystem. They highlight the Tontek TTP223 touch sensor as the Chip of the Week and critique the 'Last Tissue' Kickstarter for greenwashing. The hosts also announce a return to semi-regular banter and a search for a podcast editor.
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