MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Brightstar, a SoftBank subsidiary and the world’s largest specialized wireless distributor and leader in innovation and diversified services for the wireless industry, and Kii, a leading mobile and IoT back-end platform provider, today announced a partnership to better connect the IoT market by creating a global ecosystem supporting the development and distribution of IoT products into retail and mobile operator channels.
The new ecosystem, dubbed “Space: The Infinity of Things™,” is open to all IoT players from manufacturers and developers to retailers and mobile operators. Manufacturers who want to sell their IoT devices globally can leverage Brightstar’s worldwide network to establish new points of entry. Developers working with the open IoT platform will have access across all devices, operating systems, and chipsets, allowing them to create innovative new applications and services for IoT devices more quickly. For mobile operators and retailers who want to jointly source connected products, the open IoT ecosystem offers the benefits of scale to bring their products to market more quickly and opens new business opportunities.
“Brightstar’s expertise in wireless distribution and specialized services is unparalleled and we are in the ideal position to facilitate collaboration in the IoT market within the mobile industry,” said Atsushi Taira, Brightstar’s Chief Planning and Optimization Officer. "Our goal is to accelerate the go-to-market process of these innovative products by connecting operators and retailers with the right mix of IoT devices at affordable price points for consumers.”
"We’re providing device manufacturers, service providers and developers with all the enabling tools and services they need to quickly and economically build successful connected solutions from the idea/prototyping stage all the way to production operation and then Brightstar can manage their distribution," said Masanari Arai, CEO of Kii.
Device manufacturers are building smart products at an unprecedented pace, but the process for getting them into customer hands is slow and inefficient. Architecting underlying systems and services for production-grade, interconnected IoT initiatives is complex, costly and time consuming. Brightstar and Kii will accelerate this process and drive IoT innovation by creating an accessible ecosystem and an open platform for development.
Due to a partnership between Kii and the Alibaba IoT Cloud Division in China, devices that deploy under the open IoT platform can enjoy full interoperability on the Alibaba IoT Cloud. Device manufacturers can give their IoT devices global cloud access through a single deployment through “Space” to sell in China and the rest of the world.
“Much of the success of smart devices and IoT solutions hinges not just on the devices themselves, but on making them available to consumers in the right retail setting,” Taira said. “As smartphones reach a saturation point in many markets, operators are diversifying their portfolio from smartphones and tablets to include lifestyle enhancing products such as connected home and mobile health devices.”
Through the open ecosystem, Brightstar is currently working with prominent operators and retailers such as SoftBank Mobile, LG U+ and Shinsegae. Additionally, Brightstar and Kii are working with information and communications technology distributors such as SBCK Corp. and SoftBank Commerce & Service Corp.
Brightstar and Kii will be also working with international manufacturers such as Toshiba, YanKon, ThroughTek, Liquid Image, iFit®, Rooti, Fineck, Toymail, Haltian, Mozbii, Leeo, Astak and Kenzenwear to bring products to market more efficiently for consumers.
For more information, visit iotspace.org.
About Brightstar
Brightstar is the world’s largest specialized wireless distributor and a leading provider of diversified services focused on enhancing the performance and results of the key participants in the wireless device value chain: manufacturers, operators and retailers. In 2014, Brightstar reported global net revenues of more than $10 billion and employs about 9,000 people on six continents. For more information, please visit Brightstar.com.
About Kii
Kii is focused on addressing the high-performance demands of innovation in the connected world with an end-to-end backend platform optimized for Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile applications. Businesses of all sizes are able to build, test, deploy, manage, optimize and acquire users from a single integrated platform to accelerate time to market. Trusted by the world's largest device manufacturers and mobile carriers such as NTT Docomo, Kii currently serves 140M+ end users worldwide. Kii is a global company with data centers in the US, China and Japan. For more information, follow @KiiCorp or visit kii.com.
