CHICAGO ― Visionary and former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who passed away in 2011, is still missed not only by Apple enthusiasts but also by tech entrepreneurs who continue to hold his foresight and pioneering work in high regard.

Alan Dabbiere, the chairman of mobile device management solution-maker AirWatch, is one of those who is longing for such a pioneer as the world prepares for the advent of the IoT era.

“We need a Steve Jobs of the Internet of Things who can take a fundamental set of technologies, package and tie them in a way they are really simplified for consumers,” said Dabbiere at a panel discussion of the Internet of Things World Forum in Chicago Thursday (local time). 

He also stressed that simplification is the key to achieving an exponential development of the IoT industry, which is often referred to as the third wave of the Internet after the fixed Internet and mobile Internet.

AirWatch, founded in 2003, manufactures mobile device, email, application and laptop management solutions. The company was acquired by virtualization solution maker VMware for around $1.2 billion in 2014.

The chairman emphasized that more collaboration among the players is required in addressing issues facing the world’s tech industry, such as privacy and security.

“One place that we are truly all in a foxhole together is in this area of privacy and security because if one of us makes a mistake we will all take one huge step back,” he added.

VMware, meanwhile, announced on the same day that it had joined the Industrial Internet Consortium, an open membership group dedicated to fostering the adoption and development of IoT technology, in an aim to advance and support enterprise IoT initiatives.

The company also said it would partner with Jasper, a cloud software platform developer, to make it easy for enterprises to deploy, monitor, manage and secure connected devices across the IoT and enterprise mobility management.

By Kim Young-won, Korea Herald correspondent
(wone0102@heraldcorp.com)