Is South Korea aiming to make its own future with IoT and the cloud? A couple of initiatives from two of the country’s biggest multinationals may indicate that to be the case. LT CNS, the IT services group of LG Group, announced a revamping of its cloud-based platforms, along with freshly minted branding efforts. Samsung made a $22 billion investment in IoT and 5G.
On Aug. 22, LG CNS, a subsidiary of LG Corporation, launched seven new branding enterprises that show the country’s commitment to the fourth industrial revolution. Fully outfitted with shiny new logos and catchy names, the platforms will focus primarily on mass connectivity. Artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and Smart City are at the forefront.
- Monochain—LG’s Blockchain platform was announced earlier this year.
- Smart factory enterprise Factova, a portmanteau of “factory” and “value”, will apply developments in IoT and data analytics to improve production and logistics. According to ZDNet, “Factova will be based on LG’s over 20 years of experience helping manufacturing affiliates, such as LG Electronics and LG Display, deploy integrated automation tools for their factories.”
- Intimately connected is INFioT, the IoT platform, which is an all-round platform compatible with over 40 IoT standards. The IoT initiative will collect data from IoT devices and perform AI-based analytics, which will benefit from expansion in AI from the DAP (Data Analytics and AI Platform).
- Orott and Enerdict—(energy and predict)— are the robotics and clean energy platforms. Both intend to find efficient solutions for automating their respective fields.
The LG announcements were made a few weeks after Samsung stated its colossal $22 billion investment into IoT and 5G, as well as automotive electronics and biopharmaceuticals. The $22 billion is part of a bigger investment plan in which Samsung wants to pour $161 billion into research and development over the course of three years, mostly to be spent in South Korea.
Samsung’s investment plan doesn’t come as a surprise. The conglomerate has had its head in the cloud, acquisitions-wise, for a few years now, putting capital into everything from monetization to smart homes, as well as management software.
Samsung’s ambition to stand at the forefront of the new connectivity era started coming true when they brought telecommunications the first 5G modem that is fully compliant with 3GPP standards. The 5G standard is expected to be a crucial component of bringing about a true global IoT network by enabling ultra-high resolution videos, holograms, real-time artificial intelligence and autonomous driving.
Samsung may see a need for a big investment in the future after core businesses of semiconductors and smartphones show signs of weakness, per a Reuters report.
Others point out that these industries are the future of global tech, so it’s natural for conglomerates like Samsung to invest money in them.