It’s being called nothing less than the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”1. And in terms of uncovering the potential of the Internet of Things (IoT), it seems the limits are defined only by our collective imaginations. Indeed, as one Forbes.com article argues, “The most important thing to do when considering how the Internet of Things will affect your business is to think bigger—much bigger.”2 And what applies to our businesses applies just as much to our individual lives.
Sample these statistics: Gartner Inc. predicts that in 2016, 6.4 billion “things” will be connected to the Internet of Things.3 Go up to 2020, and that number rises to a staggering 20.8 billion. And Gartner’s predictions are among the more conservative. Cisco, which has just invested $1.4 billion in acquiring IoT firm Jasper4, has regularly put its predictions closer to 50 billion devices by 20205. In monetary terms, Cisco estimates that “between 2013 and 2022, $14.4 trillion of value (net profit) will be “up for grabs” for enterprises globally driven by IoE.”6
What Is the Internet of Things?
For the uninitiated, IoT is a vision of merging more fully our online and offline worlds by creating ways for physical things around us to be digitally responsive to a variety of circumstances. In other words, it is the attempt to make everything from televisions to bedroom lamps to cars to industrial machinery “smart”, that is, able to sense environmental or internal information critical to their functioning, and then communicate that information to one or more other devices for response, automation and control.
For instance, imagine roads embedded with sensors that detect the presence of ice or oil, or any other substance that could make the road surface slippery, sending a signal to your smart car, which then pops up a dashboard alert telling you to slow down. Or, even more radically, imagine that your car slows down automatically, without needing your intervention.
As is obvious from the above examples, the IoT consists of a series of sensors of various kinds embedded in devices (measuring location, movement, temperature, and so on), networking capabilities for the data from such sensors to be transported back to the cloud, and analytics capabilities to compose and understand the sensor data, which could finally lead to commands relayed back to the device for corrective action.
IoT and the Everyday Consumer: Everyday Life Goes the Digital Way
Much of the media attention and excitement around the Internet of Things has focused on consumer applications of the concept. This is driven by developments in three specific use-cases: in-home applications, connected car services and wearable technologies.
Research by Business Insider Intelligence shows that the connected home is already one of the largest segments of IoT applications, accounting for 25 % of the total IoT market in 2014, and expected to hit 1.8 billion units shipped by 2019.7 This segment has received a considerable fillip with some high-profile acquisitions such as Samsung’s acquisition of Smart Things (a smart-home platform developer) and Google’s acquisition of Nest Labs (a smart thermostat and meter developer).
Consumer research shows that while the buzz has often risen around the possibilities of chore automation innovations like refrigerators that would automatically order needed groceries, most consumers are primarily concerned about home safety and money savings from lowered energy consumption and are much more likely to invest in technologies that achieve these two purposes.8
The connected car is already a reality on the streets, with manufacturers offering such services as enhanced navigation, real-time traffic and parking information, streaming infotainment and integration between dashboards, smartphones and wearable devices. Indeed, one study by McKinsey & Company has found that 13% of surveyed users wouldn’t even consider buying a new vehicle without internet access, while more than a quarter of those surveyed rated connectivity as more important than factors such as fuel efficiency and engine power.9
Forecasts predict that connected cars could function as active agents in our lives, interfacing with your home to prepare for your arrival or departure, with fuel stations and parking lots to automatically pay for fuel or parking, and with the world in general notifying people when you’re running late, confirming appointments, making restaurant reservations, purchasing movie tickets and so on. But even more importantly, connected cars could offer such disruptive trends as mass adoption of ride sharing services and pay-per-use schemes of car ownership, all of which would be possible through enhanced visibility of information on car usage and availability patterns.10
The wearables market has seen a rapid adoption increase in the last two years, with fitness trackers leading the way. Predictions indicate that 2016 will see 38 million wearables sold in 2016, with fitness trackers and smartwatches generating the bulk of that revenue at a combined predicted total of $4.9 billion. Pushing this market is a growing trend of enterprise adoption of wearables, with a Tech Pro Research Report showing that 47% of companies surveyed are using or planning to adopt wearables within their organization this year. A key development is the growth of employer wellness programs built on integration with wearable products. Another key area yet to be fully explored is that of wearable devices for the elderly, as it is predicted that by 2050, 2 billion people will be over the age of 60, and wearable technologies offer enormous healthcare possibilities.11
Wearables are also moving beyond the watch, wristband and glasses to sensor-embedded clothing that can give users a sense of everything from body temperature and fatigue levels to up-to-the minute gait analysis that could aid both fitness enthusiasts and post-injury patients on the road to physical recovery.12
References
[1] http://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/publications/intelligent-assets
[3] http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3165317
[5] http://fortune.com/2015/10/05/cisco-chuck-robbins-internet/
[6] http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en_us/about/ac79/docs/innov/IoE_Economy.pdf
[8] http://www.gsma.com/newsroom/wp-content/uploads/15625-Connected-Living-Report.pdf
[10] http://techcrunch.com/2015/10/20/the-cloud-connected-car-drives-iot-monetization/
