Japanese operator SoftBank in collaboration with Electric Imp, a global secure IoT connectivity platform provider, recently announced that it will sell Electric Imp’s “IoT QuickStart Family” through SoftBank +Style, a platform that supports companies producing IoT items with new ideas and prototyping efforts.
From late April, developers can order Electric Imp prototype and development kits to accelerate IoT product development. At the same time, the Operator's CEO Masayoshi Son expects its processor-designer subsidiary ARM to fire out a trillion chips for the IoT over the next two decades.
With Electric Imp’s imp004m Breakout Board, which implements the imp004m TELEC-certified 2.4GHz Wi-Fi module, and the impExplorer Kits, companies will be able to facilitate IoT product development using the Electric Imp secure IoT connectivity platform. The platform includes a wide array of services, tools and advanced technologies designed to decrease the costs and time to develop, prototype and test IoT products. The combination of integrated hardware, impOS, impCloud, impSecure, and BlinkUp provide device management, secure provisioning, firmware and software over-the-air updates, and pre-built integrations. Moreover, with Electric Imp’s market-leading impSecure, which enforces end-to-end security on and between embedded systems and the cloud, companies can focus on commercialization efforts versus worrying about security.
The two Electric Imp products “+Style” will sell are as follows:
imp004m Breakout Board
The imp004m Breakout Board is a development board purpose-built for IoT that includes a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi module with ARM Cortex-M4 processor. When using the imp004m Breakout Boards, PoC’s for applications such as Smart Building, energy management, asset monitoring and management, predictive maintenance, and automated replenishment, can be delivered at a fraction of the cost and time required by other solutions.
impExplorer Kit
The impExplorer Kits help software developers learn about or train others on connecting to the IoT. Like the imp004m Breakout Boards, each Kit leverages the Electric Imp connectivity platform but does not require a breadboard or other additional components. The impExplorer Kit is powered either by 3xAA batteries or USB and includes four sensors -- temperature, humidity, air pressure and accelerometer – as well as Grove connectors for solderless expansion.
