Major Tech Companies Form AllSeen Alliance, Promise Interoperability For 'Internet of Everything'

If we've learned thing over the past few years, it's that major technology companies rarely get along. You need look no further than Samsung v. Apple in the courtroom to get a gist of the kind of angst that bubbles up between these firms, but it seems that a meaningful subset of them are putting differences aside in order to keep the world connected. Haier, LG Electronics, Panasonic, Qualcomm, Sharp, Silicon Image, TP-LINK and more have united to "enable interoperability across multiple devices, systems and services and support broadest cross-industry effort to accelerate Internet of Everything."


It sounds pretty incredible, actually, but the proof will no doubt be in the pudding. The newly formed AllSeen Alliance is said to be the "broadest cross-industry consortium to date," and as you may have expected, The Linux Foundation is instrumental in bringing all of this to play. The Internet of Everything is based on the idea that devices, objects and systems can be connected in simple, transparent ways to enable seamless sharing of information and coordinated and intelligent operations across all of them. There's no question that devices working together leads to better experiences (see: Pebble and iOS 7, or Bluetooth and your car stereo), but convincing companies to make that happen has been difficult.


It seems that many of these outfits are finally realizing that their own bottom lines could be bolstered if they produce products that work well with others. There's value in creating a robust walled garden, but there's more value in creating wares that play nicely with rival companies. Hopefully, this program will lead to even more of that.