Episode 136: Sony’s Aibo is back and Chamberlain’s CEO explains its moves

The best news of the week is that Sony is bringing back the Aibo robotic puppy. The bad news is that it will costs a pretty penny. Kevin Tofel and I discuss the pup, San Diego’s smart city efforts, the Apple HomePod, and funding for Ayla’s IoT platform as a service. I emailed companies to find out who has updated after KRACK and Kevin shares smart home data from Mozilla. Finally, we review the Amazon Echo Plus with ZigBee and Amazon Alexa’s new smart home interface. The new Sony Aibo has OLED eyes and so many moving joints. This week’s guest is JoAnna Sohovich, CEO of Chamberlain Group, who came on the show to explain where Chamberlain is heading with new commercial products, and its new subscription plan for IFTTT. Sohovich has been at Chamberlain for 20 months and in that time she’s focused on turning what was only a product business into a service business. Part of this is to better align with costs, but there is also a chance to boost margins by offering software features and integrations. We also hit on the future of smart home subscriptions. Enjoy the show! Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel Guests: JoAnna Sohovich, CEO of Chamberlain Group Sponsors: SAP and ADT Bring on the monthly subscription fees Ayla gets $60 million and a Chinese joint venture Why you may not want to buy an Amazon Echo Plus Why Chamberlain is charging $1 for monthly IFTTT access Chamberlain’s plans for the commercial market The post Episode 136: Sony’s Aibo is back and Chamberlain’s CEO explains its moves appeared first on IoT Podcast - Internet of Things.