I’m kind of surprised that the consumer end of IoT has continued on as long as it has. I definitely agree with an earlier post that adoption comes from novelty over usefulness… I guess the narrative that I’m seeing with it (whether intended or not) is that these consumer connected geegaws are necessary for the proliferation of data capture which will feed the real IoT. For example, nest knows when you like your home to be certain temps, and from that, energy usage can be derived, and when combined with other data, say for example, knowing when you’re home based on the geofencing info from Phillips Hue, you can start generating other insight. (how much energy you’re wasting by leaving the furnace on, etc.)
My example isn’t a great one, and I think that this is kind of the problem with the whole IoT thing… there’s no killer app yet that really demonstrates a lot of value. …at the consumer level.
The enterprise level on the other hand is primed to benefit from things like this. The bulk of my work over the past two years has been some kind of data aggregation/insight dashboard. Companies have tons of moving pieces and are constantly trying to maximize efficiency. The application of this data is a good fit for them. It starts with their internal data - “I want to know system changes that affect uptime and then see what that means in dollars… and get recommendations on how to prevent it in the future”. I think that eventually (yeah right, it’s already happening) getting that consumer level data into their algorithms will help with the insight generation. Maybe a good example is the progressive car insurance device that monitors your driving habits to give you a discount for safe driving.
I’m not saying that the power company is watching your nest data. we’re only at the beginning of this trip. but with the consumer stuff people are getting used to, and WANTING to capture more data about their lives. I think it will continue. then it starts getting kind of 1984.
Also curious to see how GE’s whole shift to IoT as an overarching business strategy works out.