Samsung CEO BK Yoon’s Internet of Things Keynote at CES 2015 (Full Transcript)

These seamless technology experiences, they will do the extraordinary when they help us to live healthier, more comfortable lives. And they will support us daily, freeing us from chores, whether it’s driving the car, or do interior jobs around the house.

What will you do with this new freedom? Spend more time with your family, to watch sports, pursue your hobbies. I think I would like some quality time on the putting green. It’s these great benefits that we need to explain. We can’t just talk about the Internet of Things because it sounds impersonal, like a bedtime story for all of us. We have to show consumers what’s in it for them and we have to make clear that the IoT can achieve much more than that. It has the potential to transform our economy, our society and how we live our lives.

So let me now invite them on to the stage who thinks a lot about our IoT future, its promise but also the roadblocks we have yet to overcome. Please welcome the President of the Foundation on Economic Trends, Jeremy Rifkin.

Jeremy Rifkin – President, The Foundation on Economic Trends

Good evening everybody. Every great economic paradigm shift in history brings together three new technologies in a seamless new infrastructure that changes the way we organize our economic life: new communication technologies to more efficiently manage economic activity; new sources of energy to more efficiently power economic activity, and new modes of transportation to more efficiently move economic activity.

Today we’re embarking on a revolution. The communication internet is converging with a nascent renewable energy internet and a fledgling transportation and logistics internet to create a super internet of things: communication, energy, transport.

In the Internet of Things era, sensors will be embedded in every device and appliance, allowing them to communicate with each other and Internet users, creating an intelligent technology infrastructure for a smart world. Homeowners and businesses will be able to produce and consume their own solar and the wind green electricity and sell any surplus electricity they have back to the electricity grid.

The automated transportation and logistics internet will ease mobility by allowing people to use their mobile devices to share electric and fuel cell vehicles, monitor traffic flows and in the very near future enjoy driverless transportation on smart roads.

In the internet of thing society, everyone is potentially a prosumer, actively producing consuming and even sharing economic activity with one another via their connected devices. This new era super-connectivity will allow us to effortlessly manage our devices and our appliances with solutions that will increase efficiencies and dramatically reduce the fixed and marginal cost of operating our homes, our businesses and our vehicles.

The Internet of Things platform will enhance virtually every aspect of our lives, from monitoring our health to improving our athletic skills, marking a vast improvement in our quality of life. The Internet of Things will also enable each of us to minimize our use of the earth’s energy and material resources and usher in a more ecologically sustainable society.

In short, consumer electronics is morphing into prosumer electronics, giving everyone greater control over their daily lives and more choices on how we live our lives. While the economic opportunities brought on by prosumer electronics will transform our lives, the wholesale transition to a new internet of thing society, it comes with its own challenges.

To begin with, we need to ensure a common set of codes, regulations and standards to advance interoperability so that every device can communicate and share data with internet users in an open system. In the digital era, success will be measured by the ability to promote universal access and inclusivity. Attempts to close or silo parts of the Internet of Things are contrary to what makes this technology a potential game-changer for society.

Companies will need to realign their business models to work together across industry borders, to both erect the Internet of Things infrastructure and service the many networks that will grow out of it. Consumer electronics companies, telecom companies, cable companies, electricity transmission companies, ICT companies, transportation and logistics companies and virtually every other industry will have a role to play here, working together to create a more collaborative Internet of Things economy.

Government, business and civil society will also have to join hands and collaborate to ensure access to the Internet of Things, protect personal privacy and guarantee data security. Openness is at the heart what has made the Internet a success, assuring everyone access to the network and making sure that no one is discriminated against is essential if we are to protect the principle of universal inclusion.

The Internet of Things brings the human race together as a single extended human family for the very first time in history, allowing us to share our commercial and social lives in ways never before imaginable. It also comes with risks. We need to build resiliency and redundancy into the emerging Internet of Things infrastructure to safeguard the system against disruptions.

We are on the cusp of a great economic transformation. The rise of the Internet of Things is going to improve the lives of billions of people and create a more efficient, democratic and sustainable future.

Thank you.

BK Yoon – President and CEO, Consumer Electronics, Samsung

Many thanks, Jeremy. As you’ve just heard, IoT will be a game-changer. The opportunities and the benefits assures but Jeremy also highlighted the challenges, we need an open ecosystem so that IoT devices work together and we need to collaborate across industries. Samsung is prepared to play a leading role here and the first step will be to get the technology right.

As I said, an IoT device needs sensors, smart components and connectivity. They allow such an object to sense all of its environment. The data is then shared, analyzed, put into context and acted on, offering the right solution or service. To make it possible, Samsung is developing many innovative smart components and connected devices.

Let’s take sensors. They will be even more advanced and precise. Most importantly, they will understand the context of your environment. We are working on a sense that can identify more than 20 different smells. We also have a three-dimension range sensor that can detect the tiniest movement.

Let me explain. Many of us have similar concerns what if our grandmother falls out of bed during the night, or slips in the shower. The sensor will allow your smartphone to get a nurse or even ambulance. Now these sensors need to be always on and always connected. That means the chips that go into the devices need good power management. That’s why we are working on chips like the ePOP (embedded package on package) and the Bio Processor. These chips are energy-efficient. They are compact and they go into a wide range of devices, especially wearables and many forms of mobile devices.

And, of course, Samsung already has a broad range of IoT devices. We have begun to unlock the value hidden in connected devices and all everyday objects around us. Here are just a few of them.

[Video Presentation]

The television that gives me a personalized morning briefing and no more breaks in the music experience. When I come home, the music I listen to simply transfers from my smartphone to wireless audio. It’s seamless.

What you’ve just seen, all this is technology that will be available later this year. And we are set to expand our IoT universe way beyond that.

By 2017, 90% of all Samsung products will be IoT devices and that includes all our televisions and the mobile devices. And 5 years from now, every single piece of Samsung hardware will be on IoT device, whether it is an air purifier, or an oven.

In addition, we are working to make every smart device in the home, like smart TVs, act as an IoT hub. Last year, Samsung delivered more than 665 million products to the hands of consumers around the world. And this number is set to increase at above 20 devices per second. We just made 20. Another 20. Just try to picture what this means for the size of the IoT ecosystem.

But it’s not just IoT components and devices that we need. For success, we need a third ingredient. We have to create an open IoT ecosystem. I have heard some people say that they want to create a single operating system for the Internet of Things. However, this operating system seems to work only with their own technology. That’s not enough.

The IoT experience has to be seamless. We must not have walled IoT garden. We can deliver the benefits of IoT only if all sensors and all devices will greet each other. That’s why today on behalf of Samsung, I am making a promise. Our IoT components and devices will be open. We will ensure that others can easily connect to our devices. Without this kind of openness, there won’t be an Internet of Things because the things will not fit together. That’s why last August, SmartThings became a member of the Samsung family. We promised to keep its platform open.

So please welcome to the stage the Founder and Chief Executive of SmartThings, Alex Hawkinson.

Alex, many thanks for joining us.

Alex Hawkinson – CEO, SmartThings

Thank you.

BK Yoon – President and CEO, Consumer Electronics, Samsung

We have been working together for six months now. What have we achieved?

Alex Hawkinson – CEO, SmartThings

Hey BK and hello everybody. It’s definitely been a really busy six months, and Samsung’s brand and reach and really the scale have made a huge difference in SmartThings business.

And so what have we achieved? We’re just beginning but we’ve ramped up our IoT offering. Today we have announced the next generation SmartThings Hub that works even if you have an Internet or power outage in your home, plus many full new lineup of devices and many additional services. So, of course, we’ve also worked incredibly closely with our Samsung colleagues to integrate SmartThings into Samsung devices.

BK Yoon – President and CEO, Consumer Electronics, Samsung

You’ve been very busy. So what do you think is going to make the biggest difference for consumers?

Alex Hawkinson – CEO, SmartThings

Well, BK, as you said earlier, for the Internet of Things to be as big a success as it can be, it really needs to be open. And that means for us any device from any platform needs to be able to connect and communicate with each other. And that’s why we’re SmartThings on all platforms. We run on Android and we run on iOS and we run on Windows Phone and now on many wearables, including all wearables from Samsung but also working with Jawbone and others. And now there is even a solution for Smart TVs as well.

BK Yoon – President and CEO, Consumer Electronics, Samsung

Thanks Alex. A key strength of SmartThings is your partnerships. What new services can we expect?

Alex Hawkinson – CEO, SmartThings

A lot of things going on. So let me name just a few of the services and the partners that we’re integrating with SmartThings. First on the devices front. So NetGear for cameras, Philips Hue for lighting, Honeywell for thermostats, Chamberlain for garage doors, plus many other partners. And of course, SmartThings works with all of Samsung’s connected appliances now.

The SmartThings ecosystem has reached a point where it is now compatible with more devices than any other smart home platform in the world. It gives — what’s most important about that is it really gives consumers the freedom of choice across all of the top IoT services and applications, whether it’s security or energy savings, entertainment, health and beyond.

So beyond the devices, we’ve been very busy as well. So we are also launching and announcing today a new premium subscription service that will do things like send you and your friend an alert and it will escalate via phone if there’s a problem in your home.

So imagine, let’s say your home’s plumbing suffers a leak like mine did when I founded the company, or your grandma hasn’t taken her medicine or your pet happens to be out in the yard just as a storm is coming, the SmartThings premium service will alert you and members of your family. And what’s great about that is it’s really starting to solve real problems and it brings — IoT is bringing peace of mind to everyday people. So we’re really excited about giving customers access to all of these different IoT devices and services in ever more places. And what’s best about it is that it’s all real today. All of this will be available nationwide in April.

BK Yoon – President and CEO, Consumer Electronics, Samsung

That’s outstanding, Alex. And I am really pleased for you and for SmartThings.

Now I have said it several times already, the Internet of Things needs to be an IoT for you. It’s about people. But every country, every family, every person has different needs. To meet all these needs, we need a huge developer community.

Alex Hawkinson – CEO, SmartThings

I mean, absolutely. We’re not the ones that are going to have all the great ideas or be making the devices. It’s a worldwide opportunity. So the Internet of Things is only going to happen if it inspires and engages the imagination of developers everywhere. And the thing that’s — you know what actually pleased me the most in the six months that we’ve been working together is that since our partnership with Samsung, the number of developers that are building and working with the SmartThings platform has doubled. So I mean that in the broadest possible sense as well.

So earlier you gave the example of an IoT chair. The developer could be the manufacturer of the chair. It could be the team that’s developing the software that makes it work exactly like we would like it to work. And I know I could use that thing. So it’s these thousands of developers that will help us to meet the needs of people around the world and really bring this to life. So we need IoT software, we need IoT hardware and we need a truly open approach that embraces developers. And so beyond our own efforts and commitments in the space, I’d also like to invite a guy on stage that has done really great with all of these things as well. So please join me in welcoming the Chief Executive of Jawbone, Hossain Rahman.

Hossain Rahman – CEO, Jawbone

Thanks Alex. And thank you, BK for having me. Appreciate it.

Hi everyone. I’m Hossain from Jawbone. And we make lots of smart connected personal devices. And this keynote today really sets the tone for this year’s CES. As we talk about the Internet of Things, I really want us to focus on the role of wearables in the Internet of Things at the center of that universe.

So at Jawbone, we see ourselves at the intersection of beautiful design and innovative engineering. Our UP bands are designed from the ground up to both be highly functional and objects of desire. We absolutely want users to want to wear them, right, and they need to integrate seamlessly into your life. So we’ve been very focused on how do we solve this wearability problem if we want to help people. And that’s really our fundamental goal. It’s helping people; it’s what we’re all about and that’s us being in sort of service of the user.

So for us it starts with understanding yourself, understanding all the nuances of who you are so that you can live better, so you can be – move more, sleep better, eat well and I’m very very proud of the fact in a recent survey, 9 out of 10 of our users said that UP has fundamentally changed the way they feel about their house. So we are indeed changing people’s lives for good. So we are excited about that.

Now, with UP, we have this completely integrated system and it goes beyond just hardware and software. It’s a system that includes advanced tracking algorithms, a really engaging applications service, big data science and a huge platform where there are tons and many thousands now of partner applications. And it’s all of this working in concert with the sort of system approach that gives us a lot of unique insight into what’s happening with the user on them, how that connects to the things around them 24/7.

So when we bring this all together, we deliver these amazingly rich experiences. So BK talked about the Internet of Things being as incredibly personal experience. In fact, we think it’s the most personalized and tailored experience that you could have. By understanding you, we can tell you what music to listen to when you work out, so you move faster, we can cue that up for you. And because we know whether you’re hot or cold, we can change the environment. We can tell the thermostat and the rest of the system around you what to do so you sleep better. And one of my favorite things is we can start to control your media experience, so we can tell you which programs you should watch if you want to rest the night to sleep or you want to be in a better mood.

And the truth is we can only put all of this together if we work with others. And that’s why as you heard tonight, this notion of an open ecosystem is so, so so critical to making the Internet of Things a success. And only if we can be open and put it all together can we actually deliver on this promise.

So for us, UP itself is an open platform. We’ve taken this open approach so that we can be compatible with any device, whether it’s a smartphone, SmartWatch, Smart TV or any of the bazillions of connected devices that you’re going to see here at the show and even other wearables can plug into UP, join our community. And we’ve also made it totally open to third-party developers.

And one of our favorite developers is certainly SmartThings and it’s a really wonderful example of what we can do to start to bring the promise of the Internet of Things together. By connecting UP and SmartThings, you can now activate your home and your smart home around the UP band. We sync with your bedtime and your wake-up routine with the rest of the house, so we know when you’re waking up, we can turn on the lights, get the toaster going. When you go to bed, we can turn off the lights. We can make sure you lock the door, so you don’t forget it. And I’m really excited about where we go as we start to pull more together with SmartThings around understanding how your home affects you.

And so these integrations as they come together are going to mean that more and more of this technology is really working for you. So to date for Jawbone we have over 2500 developers who are building these integrations and applications and they range from fitness to smart homes as we talked about a second ago to your car, and that list is expanding every day, getting richer, getting more interesting.

But you know, for us ultimately it’s not just about the data, it’s really about getting great results for what specifically people want for our users, right? And this to us now feels like the beginning of this path to really connected world centered all around the user. And that’s what we think about. That’s what moves us, that’s what motivates us, because the possibilities when you do that are really really huge, and we think there’s just this amazing opportunity to build these joint experiences and within that joint experience, the developers matter. They are the crucial link that pulls it together because those are the folks that are going to get the new products and services that are going to make a difference in people’s lives. We can’t think of all the things that are possible.

So thank you for listening tonight. We’re very excited to work with you in 2015 and make this the year that really everybody starts talking to each other and connecting and working together. So thank you.

BK Yoon – President and CEO, Consumer Electronics, Samsung

Thank you, Hossain. And many thanks again to Alex for joining us today.

As Hossain just said, the Internet of Things is about delivering experiences that change our lives for the better. And you know the ideas that developers come up with for the Internet of Things, they are absolutely amazing. We at Samsung are committed to supporting the developer community because only together can we shape this better future.

This year, Samsung will invest more than $100 million in the developer community. We will do this by strengthening our accelerator programs for developers and start-ups. We will also expand our developer events globally and advance our IoT platform to give developers many opportunities.

But it’s not just developers who have to be part of this open ecosystem. Our whole industry has to pull together to make the Internet of Things a reality. It’s obvious the Internet of Things will change much more than our industry. That’s because it will touch every aspect of our lives and revolutionize every industry. That’s why we have to work across industries. So to unlock the value of each and very things, everything we have to strike partnerships everywhere.

Here is a great example that we spotted recently. It’s originally a medical device used in hospitals to protect heart patients. It keeps them out of intensive care and keeps them out of the hospital early. Now imagine meshing such a device with consumer electronics. This sensor is about the size of my hand. Put under my mattress, it checks how I sleep and my vital functions. It monitors by health trends and it shows them on my smartphone.

Another clever little feature: it senses the best time for me to wake up based on my sleep patterns. And I don’t have to change my habits or lifestyle. It just works. It’s my job to help small companies with great ideas like this to make a big impact on the world. So here is the task. We have to see the potential of the Internet of Things across all kinds of industries.

Let’s take a look how our products can enable such an open ecosystem.

[Video Presentation]

Personal safety and the customer convenience, these are just a few of the many IoT benefits that Samsung and players across all industries can deliver if we work together. Some companies, of course, have already joined us at the leading edge of thinking about IoT. Please welcome Senior Vice President of BMW Group Elmar Frickenstein.

Elmar Frickenstein – Senior Vice President, BMW Group

Thank you very much. Thank you very much BK for the invitation to your fantastic keynote tonight. Ladies and gentlemen, we are currently in a new era, in the new era of the Internet and the age of the Internet.

The Internet of Things is not a trend anymore. It’s already a reality. Connecting devices with each other has become a standard. Connectivity has a enormous potential.

Can we even begin to imagine what will be possible in the future? Our long BMW history of connecting cars started over 17 years ago. In 1997, we were the first carmaker to introduce the emergency call to our vehicle. In 2008, the first free internet access for the automotive industry. 2011, the integration of the BMW apps and third-party apps such as Spotify. Last year we present and we launched the first BMW Connected Drive store and navigation updates over-the-air. Updates are available anytime anywhere.

Most of the BMW fleet is now connected. The Internet of Cars is already here today. In the Internet of Things, the boundaries between home, office, and other devices are disappearing. In the Internet of Cars, we are connecting the most fascinating of devices, the automobile, to your personal digital assistant seamlessly, safely and easily.

Companies like Samsung create and provide new ecosystem for their customers and we are connecting the customers’ world to the BMW. Therefore cross-industry collaboration is key for the future. One outstanding example is the Samsung Galaxy Gear which is already connected to our cars today.

Let’s have a look. The BMW connected — BMW remote app connects your Samsung Gear or smartphone to your BMW, check your electric vehicle range or battery recharge level for the BMW i. Send a new address as a new destination to your BMW. Open or close the doors. Activate the heating or cooling all by remote control. Intermodal routine combines public transportation to plan seamless and efficient journeys. Visits today what is coming up tomorrow.

It’s my pleasure to present the BMW Touch command as world’s first. The new Samsung tablet is fully integrated into the environment of the car and comes with a dedicated BMW HMI interface. Now you can control functions like ambient light, or air conditioning in your vehicle. Enjoy your music and brings your seat into a sleeping position. Feels like a first class in [happening]. Two great examples for open collaboration between Samsung and BMW, a great sign of more great things to come.

Connecting your digital life also means connecting your BMW to your smart home. The solar carports can provide wireless inductive charging. Your Smart TV informs you about the traffic situation or charged status of your BMW. And in the morning, your BMW is waiting at the front door for you. Samsung Galaxy Gear tablet and Smart Home integration are three great steps for the Internet of Cars but this is not the end.

In the future, connectivity will be key technology, will be the key technology for the highly automated driving. Car sensor information will be shared over the cloud with all other cars – swarm intelligence straight ahead.

Last year we showed at the CES our highly automated driving vehicle at its limits. This year, I can introduce to you our BMW i8 which comes to you consciously.

BMW, pick me up.

For this feature cross-industry collaboration is key automotive IT and CES industries. We all have to work together. The vision is clear: The Internet of Cars and the cloud as enablers of a bright automotive future.

Thank you very much for your attention. Enjoy the CES.

BK Yoon – President and CEO, Consumer Electronics, Samsung

Many thanks, Elmar. Remember I said it at the very beginning there are already many IoT devices out there. We just haven’t connected them yet. Well, you have just heard how powerful swarm intelligence can be. So it’s all coming together. Smart components, IoT devices, open platforms, the developer community, collaboration in our industry and an ecosystem across all industries.

However there is one more important thing. The Internet of Things must be secure. Security needs to be baked into the hardware and software at every level. This is a task for which our whole industry has to work closely together.

I have been in this industry for the past 30 years. Technology has changed a lot. More importantly it has changed our lives: Computers, the Internet, mobile devices, home appliances, of course, televisions. I have observed each and every turn since I was a young engineer. But the change so far is nothing compared to what’s ahead. I know in my heart, to make the Internet of Things happen, it takes more than one company, more than one industry, to create this IoT universe. We all have to work together. So let’s connect the dots and connect the things. Let’s start out by doing this with Smart Things at home, by creating the Home of the Future and this little IoT islands, they will soon grow together and mesh. I see it developed into Smart Cities and Smart Nations. And I am certain, very soon, this Internet of Things will give you, me, and it will give all of us an IoT universe. From humble beginnings the Internet of Things will help us tackle the mega trends of today’s world and make things better.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Internet of Things, this IoT for you, for us all, it’s coming. What we are holding in our hands are infinite possibilities. Now it’s up to us to unlock them.

Thank you very much.

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