What is the Internet of Things and why is it important?

The Internet of Things (IoT) is defined as the network of physical objects—devices, vehicles, buildings and other items—embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity that enables these objects to collect and exchange data. Almost regardless of industry, the IoT is predicted to be the single most crucial factor impacting fundamental business logic in the coming decades. 

IoT applications can be between people, between people and things, and between things and things, also called machine to machine (M2M).

There are now about 4.6 billion connected devices excluding phones, tablets and laptops. A number that is expected to increase to 15.3 billion in the next five years, according to the Ericsson Mobility report.

A recent study released by Gartner says that 43% of all companies are using or plan to implement an IoT application in 2016. Are you one of them?

Internet of Things applications can be found in every industry with a diversity of applications for smart homes, smart buildings, travel and transportation, health and personal care, retail, agriculture and construction amongst others. The industrial Internet of Things revolves around automation and logistics. Increasingly we will see the Internet of Things creating smarter solutions, programmatically adjusting to human behaviour. The driving forces are efficiency and convenience.

However, there are still some barriers to adoption; for example, battery life of devices and the cost of devices. GSM and 4G networks are used more and more for IoT applications and new advancements recently made in the network software, and device stack will significantly improve on these aspects. Finding the right ideas and business model, how to go to market and secure ROI for the Internet of Things applications are the most critical issues to solve for most companies in the coming years. 

As a direct result of the IoT, businesses are awakening to a new era of the digital enterprise, requiring companies to find a new way of delivering their products and services. To a large extent, this means that the future battlegrounds for most companies won't lie within the products they produce or the service they offer, but instead in the software and automated service layers, those products and services are wrapped in.

As a consequence, there is a shift in value proposition happening. Moving from the value of the core product or service to the experience pre, during and post-purchase of the product or service.

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Are you thinking large enough around the IoT and how it will impact your business? If not, talk to Zooma about new ideas.