BEIJING-- Can you order a mini-audio player from an online business-to-consumer company and have the gadget, which was stored in a warehouse about 25 kilometers away, delivered to you in less than 10 hours?

Yes.

Mr Wang, who lives in downtown Beijing's Xicheng District, placed an order for a Panasonic mini-audio player on 360buy.com at 10 am Thursday. His order was instantly received and printed at the retailer's warehouse located in the suburban district of Tongzhou.

Unlike conventional means of classification, like alphabetizing or organizing based on product codes, the 20,000-square-meter warehouse is divided into hundreds of thousands of numbered virtual grids in which commodities are situated based on sales volume. Top sellers are put on shelves nearest the pathway for easy access.

Ten minutes later, the commodity picker Zuo Li, entered the warehouse to fill 40 orders, including Wang's. A computer calculated the shortest route and guided him to the items he needed via a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).

"The PDA tells me where I should go, step by step. This makes me feel like a robot," said Zuo. Upon successfully finding an item, the PDA would relocate and guide him to the next nearest shelf.

At 10:20 am, Wang's audio device left the warehouse, bound for the distribution center. As soon as the commodities were loaded onto the delivery truck, Wang received an e-mail from 360buy telling him that his package was out of storage.

The system continued to track Wang's package throughout every step on its journey.

At 5 pm, parcel carrier Xiao Li, guided by the Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment he carries, started for Wang's home.

Every 30 seconds the GPS equipment reported the delivery person's real-time location to the system at the company's headquarters, allowing Wang to track his package via online updates as it approached his home.

"Customer-friendliness is pointless without robust logistics," said Liu Qiangdong, 360buy's chief executive officer.

It is more than just logistics, though. The wireless network developed from the Internet's core technologies is called the Internet of Things (IOT).

China may unveil its 2011-2015 plan for the IOT industry, among six strategic emerging industries, as early as September, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

The plan targets the development and application of 10 key areas, including a smart grid, smart transportation and smart logistics, according to sources close to the ministry.

What is IOT?

The IOT connects its users to "things," or real-world objects, making communication possible between things as well as between human and things.

Radio frequency identification (RFID), sensors and GPS are the basic technologies that allow things to communicate with each other. If installed and compatible with certain devices, things can connect anywhere, anytime through the network.

The high-tech network is expected to enter people's daily lives in unimaginable ways.

According to a report released by the International Telecommunication Union in 2005, the IOT is expected to be sophisticated enough in 2020 for a car to alert its driver of possible tire failure before moving, a snowboarder's jacket to be embedded with a media player and climate-control features, and a video call to be conducted using specialized glasses.

Government support

There has been a boom in research and development of China's IOT industry since the second half of 2009 when the government decided to promote the promising industry as well as other progressive industries including new energy, new materials and information networks.

The market scale for IOT-related industries will reach more than 500 billion yuan (around $77 billion) by the end of 2015, according to the white paper on IOT released by the China Academy of Telecommunication Research of MIIT in May.

"More than 90 percent of provinces regard the IOT as their dominant industry," said Xi Guohua, vice minister of the MIIT earlier on a forum.

The Chinese government has been gradually increasing its financial support for the development of the IOT.

In April, the Ministry of Finance and the MIIT promulgated the Interim Measures for the Management of Special Funds for the Development of the Internet of Things.

These measures established special funds worth 5 billion yuan for the development of smart networks from 2011 to 2015. Nearly 100 of more than 600 eligible companies were granted the first batch of funds in May, according to the MIIT.

"We encourage banks as well as venture capital and social funds to join the IOT industry," wrote Miao Wei, minister of the MIIT, in his article recently published in Qiushi, or "Seeking Truth," the official biweekly journal of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.