Vodafone, IBM Team on Smart Home

BERLIN -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Vodafone today announced a collaboration to combine mobile communications and cloud computing for the remote management of ‘smart home’ appliances.At the IFA consumer electronics event in Berlin this week, Vodafone and IBM will demonstrate the mobile management of a washing machine and other smart home devices that are connected by Vodafone’s Global M2M Platform running on IBM’s new SmartCloud Service Delivery Platform.

Machine-to-Machine (M2M) technology makes home appliances more intelligent by connecting them wirelessly to the internet. This enables them to feed useful data back to the service provider or manufacturer to achieve a better customer experience through new functionality and enhanced services.

IBM and Vodafone anticipate that this M2M initiative could allow consumers to use their smartphones for a variety of remote activities including viewing their home's utility consumption; controlling security, heating and lighting systems; and activating home appliances such as washing machines. Additionally the initiative will enable manufacturers and service providers to collect data from appliances that can be used to inform product development and maintenance and provide better services to consumers.

IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM)

Vodafone Group plc (NYSE: VOD)