IoTComplete

Early Implementation Will Suffer, and “Always ON” Will Be Managed, Eventually

By IoTComplete’s Jimmy Schaeffler

(December 15, 2014: Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA)

As described in the sister Article/blog posted on December 1, 2014, entitled, “The IoT: 7 Things You Are Going to Like,” the Internet of Things (IoT) is another way of stating the idea that more and more people will use and carry devices on their person, and in their homes and vehicles, and more and more business machines will have many more similar (and more complex) devices. Those devices will, in turn, communicate with other devices in other machines and other places, all the while analyzing the data that comes from those original devices, typically aimed at making actions and people and machines more efficient.

Yet, the real key for humankind is that that collection and analysis be done well, so as ultimately to use this amazing new technology to improve the quality of our lives. In order to do so, governments, institutions, and businesses…indeed, even many individuals… are going to have to encounter things about the IoT they do not approve of, and probably seek to change those things. This article, like the one before it mentioned above, is aimed at consumer-oriented IoT hardware and software.

With that in mind, ALL-IoT.NET introduces our audience to what some of those key IoT frustrations are going to represent.

• #1  The IoT will suffer — at least initially — from lack of standards and smooth operations. That is because when new industries develop technologically, they typically rely on disparate and uncoordinated thrusts by separate pioneers, typically meaning different standards evolve (which ideally later get unified), and different rules mean confusion when it comes to operations.
• #2  The IoT will suffer from a lack of security. Companies are just now starting to join trade groups and coalitions intent on finding common development and implementation paths. As this process heats, a handful of the best such groups will ultimately unilaterally dominate the businesses of IoT. Security solutions will be handled aggressively both by specific companies and by the coalitions, and the quicker long-term answers are found for security breaches, the sooner the greater business
• #3  The IoT will gather massive sums of data about our lives. This will include things such as the behaviors, and the machines, that run our lives. The real problem: IoT will know you better than you mother, which might be rather annoying for some.
• #4  The IoT will make it harder to go off the grid and to be out of touch for extended periods of time. Similar to other items on the “Like” list from the “7 Things You Are Going To Like,” this item can also be seen as a positive, because many in future generations will relish the “always on” capacity of Life In IoT Land. The key will be to build proper “sleep” and “off/DND” functions into all these devices – or at least into the consumer ones.
• #5  The IoT will morph within a couple of decades toward vast consolidation, and will reduce itself to a handful of companies that will rule the roost. This inevitable convergence — or survival of the fittest — of dominant companies, standards, hardwares and softwares, will also create much less innovation and competition among these stakeholders, which likely will hurt consumers and businesses and governments and institutions in the long-term.
• #6  The IoT will change the composition of jobs for those seeking employment. Again, this cuts both ways, and those that see this trend and prepare for it will thrive. Thus, for example, in the same way the industrial revolution took us away from agriculture, and PCs changed the way we moved information, the IoT will change our lives markedly, and many will not like that.
• #7  The IoT will develop rather quickly, meaning get ready for change. We intend not to beat a dead horse, but the complexity and confusion of the Early IoT Years comes from measuring and threshing of these issues, many of which typically cut both ways: some positive, some not so much; some people like them, some do not. The reason IoT will develop so relatively quickly is found in the relative growth and maturation of similar industries that precede it. In that vein, the chart below indicates the time it took these technologies to reach 50% of potential users. Needless to say, we at ALL.IoT.NET predict relatively fast ramp times for the implementation of IoT.

Adoption Rates For New Technology

Source: Consumer Electronics Association

Note that as mentioned at the top of this article/blog, a prior IoTComplete.com article focused on the “7 Things About IoT You Are Going To Like,” which was a clear attempt to further incentivize people, businesses, governments, and other institutions to maintain a level of optimism and enthusiasm necessary for the maximization of new innovation and investment necessary to get us most deliberately and quickly into IoT. In short, these “not going to likes” add up to some serious issues that businesses, governments, and institutions are going to have to deal with in order to simply make life better.

Jimmy Schaeffler has built IoTComplete.com to fully light the burgeoning worlds of IoT and M2M. By focusing on the professional consideration of news, events, opinion, research, and concrete tactics and strategies, he aims to provide a top-level, one-stop resource for publication, consulting, conference, and speaking needs. The IoTComplete.com business is designed toward helping companies, governments, communities, and institutions grapple with the new realities and planning necessary to thrive in the IoT and M2M era faced by every person and entity globally. Visit www.IoTComplete.com for contact and more details.