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Smart Tangibles News Digest #2508

  • Writer: Yoel Frischoff
    Yoel Frischoff
  • Dec 29, 2025
  • 6 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

December 29, 2025

Year in Review - 2025


A satellite image of the earth
Global Smart Tangibles News from around the world (Image credit: ChatGPT)

Smart tangibles in 2025 were less about “more things connected” and more about systems becoming operable: better onboarding and interoperability, clearer security baselines, connectivity that reaches beyond terrestrial networks, and edge compute that is finally deployable at scale. The year’s most important stories were the ones that reduced friction - in standards, regulation, connectivity, and infrastructure - and made long-lived, service-backed hardware more realistic.


Cross Cutting Signals

Looking across this year’s items, several patterns emerge that cut across technologies, vendors, and verticals:


  • Interoperability matured Interoperability in 2025 shifted from “does it connect?” to “does it work reliably at scale?”. Matter invested heavily in commissioning, multi-device setup, and reliability, then expanded into higher-stakes categories like cameras and energy where failure has real cost.

  • Security became a visible product attribute Security moved out of the datasheet and onto the box. Labeling schemes, certification programs, and regulatory timelines turned cybersecurity into a purchasing and procurement signal, not just an internal engineering concern.

  • Non-terrestrial networks entered the commercial IoT stack Satellite connectivity crossed from pilot to product. Seamless cellular-to-satellite offerings began shipping under unified management platforms, making coverage a built-in capability rather than a special case.

  • 5G RedCap became real RedCap progressed from roadmap to rollout. Carriers, module vendors, and private 5G deployments positioned it as a practical middle tier, offering a path beyond LTE without the cost, power, or complexity of full 5G.

  • Edge AI moved down the stack Edge intelligence stopped requiring heavy SoCs. AI-capable MCUs and dedicated accelerators made on-device inference viable within tight power and BOM constraints, enabling smarter products without cloud dependency.

  • Industrial interoperability shifted toward governed data sharing Industrial systems moved beyond protocol compatibility toward questions of access, ownership, and control. Data-sharing frameworks and governance models became central as manufacturers prepared for regulatory and ecosystem-driven data exchange.

  • Connectivity for smart infrastructure became deployment-ready Wireless advances focused less on peak performance and more on operability. Wi-Fi 7 modules matured toward industrial qualification, while LPWAN upgrades quietly improved capacity, energy efficiency, and fleet economics.


  • IoT platforms continued consolidating

    The IoT stack kept collapsing upward. Platforms absorbed adjacent layers like storage, rules, and analytics, reducing integration overhead and presenting tighter, more operationally coherent control surfaces.



News In Detail



1. Matter grew up - from “it connects” to “it commissions” to “it expands”


2025 was the year Matter visibly invested in reducing failure and support cost. Matter 1.4.1 centered on onboarding improvements like multi-device setup and NFC-based commissioning, aiming to reduce returns and support calls.


Then Matter 1.5 broadened the spec into more demanding categories (including cameras, closures, energy features) - a sign the alliance believes the foundation is solid enough to expand into higher-stakes device classes. 


Signals to Watch

  • Interoperability standards optimizing for support economics, not just feature matrices

  • Cameras and energy - turning “smart home” into “smart infrastructure” territory

  • Better commissioning - a quiet force multiplier for adoption and ecosystem health


Key Links




  1. IoT security became a label, a procurement lever, and a compliance clock


Two major forces converged: public-facing labeling and regulatory timelines. In the US, the Cyber Trust Mark program was announced as a consumer-facing label tied to NIST-aligned requirements and third-party verification.

In Europe, the EU Data Act moved into its application window (with core obligations applying from 12 September 2025, and phased requirements thereafter), pulling connected-product makers into new expectations around access, portability, and data sharing by design. 


Signals to Watch

  • Security and data governance shifting from “nice-to-have” to market access

  • Labels and standards becoming purchase criteria (and later, procurement gates)

  • Product teams needing “compliance-ready” architectures earlier in the roadmap


Key Links



  1. Satellite entered the mainstream IoT stack - hybrid connectivity is now shipping


2025 saw non-terrestrial connectivity move from demos into platform offerings. Soracom announced general availabilityof integrated satellite IoT connectivity with Skylo - positioning it as seamless cellular-to-satellite switching under a unified management layer.


Direct-to-device demonstrations also kept advancing, reinforcing that NTN is not just for remote sensors - it is moving toward broader device classes. 


Signals to Watch

  • “Coverage” becoming a product feature - not just a carrier concern

  • Unified management of terrestrial + satellite links as a baseline for critical deployments

  • New service models for remote ops, compliance, and resilience


Key Links



  1. 5G RedCap became the “middle tier” that finally looks scalable


RedCap (Reduced Capability) became a real 2025 storyline: carriers expanded coverage, silicon vendors pushed certified modules, and private 5G trials positioned RedCap as a practical industrial option.


AT&T announced nationwide RedCap availability, explicitly targeting IoT categories like healthcare, asset tracking, and industrial sensors. 

Semtech and others moved through certification milestones, and Samsung showcased an industrial RedCap private-5G trial with Hyundai. 


Signals to Watch

  • LTE replacement planning shifting toward RedCap and eRedCap

  • Mid-bandwidth IoT (video-lite, wearables, tracking) getting a 5G path without 5G cost/power penalties

  • Private 5G becoming more modular, less bespoke


Key Links



  1. Edge AI moved down the stack - “AI MCUs” got serious


2025 wasn’t just “more edge AI” - it was edge AI becoming MCU-native. Synaptics extended its Astra platform with adaptive MCUs built around Arm Cortex-M55 plus Ethos-U55 NPU for multimodal, context-aware IoT devices. 


Renesas also pushed high-end AI MCUs (e.g., RA8P1) combining high-performance cores with an Ethos-U55 NPU. 


Signals to Watch

  • Product differentiation shifting from cloud intelligence to on-device capability

  • Power budgets and BOMs improving while inference capability rises

  • Toolchains and reference designs becoming the real adoption driver


Key Links



  1. Industrial interoperability evolved into governed data sharing


A meaningful 2025 signal: industrial interoperability is increasingly about who can use data, under what conditions, not just protocol-level connectivity.


The OPC Foundation and IDSA expanded collaboration to connect OPC UA ecosystems with International Data Spaces governance concepts. 


Signals to Watch

  • “Data spaces” governance meeting industrial semantics and OT realities

  • Compliance and sovereignty pressures shaping IIoT architectures

  • New product opportunities in connectors, policy enforcement, and auditability


Key Links


  1. Wi-Fi 7 started becoming deployment-ready for industrial and medical use cases

Wi-Fi 7 in 2025 started shifting from “spec headline” to qualification and interoperability work aimed at deployment.


Advantech and Rohde & Schwarz announced collaboration to validate industrial Wi-Fi 7 modules for compliance and OTA testing - explicitly targeting robotics/AMR, medical imaging, rugged devices, and more. 


Signals to Watch

  • RF validation and approvals becoming the hidden bottleneck for smart infrastructure

  • Wi-Fi 7 moving into industrial-grade modular ecosystems

  • Better deterministic wireless options reshaping facility architectures


Key Links


  1. Platform consolidation kept accelerating - fewer seams, more “single surface” operations


As 2025 closed, infrastructure vendors kept collapsing stack layers.



A good example: EMQ’s EMQX Tables brought broker and time-series storage closer together inside a single operational surface - reducing the classic “broker + pipeline + database” sprawl. 


Signals to Watch

  • IoT platforms absorbing storage, rules, analytics, and device ops under one control plane

  • “Build vs buy” decisions shifting as managed IoT stacks become more complete

  • Operational simplicity becoming a differentiator


Key Links


Closing


If 2024 was about “connected,” then 2025 was about “operational.” Interoperability improved where it matters (setup), security became legible (labels and compliance clocks), connectivity widened (NTN and RedCap), and edge intelligence moved closer to the device. Taken together, these shifts made IoT feel less like a collection of demos and more like an infrastructure layer you can build durable products on.


From TheRoad / Smart Tangibles


  • Latest digest: If you missed it, last week’s [News Digest Issue #2507] focused on the quiet maturation of the IoT stack – where consolidation, standards evolution, and deployable edge platforms are reducing friction across build, deploy, and operate. This issue highlights how operational simplicity, lifecycle readiness, and integration depth are becoming the real differentiators for connected products.

  • Smart Tangibles book progress: The Smart Tangibles manuscript is currently expanding its chapters on connectivity standards and security baselines for smart products. If you have a case study that touches on Matter, Thread, Zigbee, or IoT security labels, I would love to hear from you via the [Smart Tangibles case submission page]



How to Use This Digest



This digest is designed to be more than a news summary. Use it as a strategic signal scan.


  • Product leaders - look for shifts that reduce integration friction or change build vs. buy decisions. Items like broker-native storage or OS-level edge support often signal when platforms are ready for productization, not just pilots.

  • Hardware and IoT teams - focus on standards and infrastructure updates. Quiet changes in Bluetooth, LoRaWAN, or edge stacks tend to show up months later as better battery life, lower BOM pressure, or simpler architectures.

  • Operators and service owners - track anything that improves lifecycle economics. Fewer moving parts, clearer upgrade paths, and more deployable edge AI directly affect uptime, support cost, and service margins.

  • Strategists and investors - read across items, not individually. When connectivity, compute, and platforms all mature at once, it usually marks an inflection point where new business models become viable.



The goal is not to follow every announcement, but to understand which shifts are becoming safe assumptions for next-generation connected products.


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