Answer to Question 1
Interoperability remains a major concern. As with many technologies in the early stages of development, many organizations are fighting to create the standards that participants in the market will follow. The AllSeen Alliance, formed by Qualcomm in 2013 with 50 other companies, including Microsoft and Cisco, is one group that hopes to create an open source standard. Another group, the Open Connectivity Foundation (formerly the Open Interconnect Consortium) was formed in 2014 by Intel, Broadcom, Dell, and others apparently not happy with the AllSeen effort. A different group, the Industrial Internet Consortium, has been formed by AT&T, Cisco, GE, IBM, and Intel to focus on engineering standards for industrial assets. The Wolfram Connected Devices Project is aimed at developing a database of IoT devices, and currently includes more than 3,000. And as with many other types of Internet-related technology, Google with its Android operating system and Apple with AirPlay may be trying to create their own standards. Other concerns include security and privacy. Security experts believe that IoT devices could potentially be a security disaster, with the potential for malware being spread through a connected network, and difficulty in issuing patches to devices, leaving them vulnerable. Data from standalone smart devices can reveal much personal detail about a consumer's life, and if those devices are all ultimately interconnected, there will be little that is truly private.
Answer to Question 2
B