10 IoT Predictions for 2017
It’s still early days for the Internet of Things. As recently as 2014, 87 percent of consumers had never heard of the technology, according to Accenture. In 2016, and 19% of industry and government professionals reported that they had never heard of the Internet of Things while 18% were only vaguely familiar with it, according to research from the Internet of Things Institute.
Although the technology is getting the most traction in the industrial space, the most promising use cases for the technology are just starting to come to light.
To get a sense of what to expect as we head into 2017, we spoke with Stanford lecturer and IoT author Timothy Chou, Ph.D.; Thulium.co CEO Tamara McCleary; and industry observer and influencer Evan Kirstel.
There is already a significant fork between the consumer-oriented Internet of Things and the rest of the IoT, which spans everything from construction, transportation, agriculture, healthcare, oil and gas, energy, and water.
While industrial applications of the Internet of Things are in many ways more advanced than consumer-facing applications, the average amount of computing power in early industrial IoT applications is typically unimpressive. Stanford lecturer Timothy Chou suspects that the things in the IoT will get smarter in 2017. At present, the industry uses machines that are frankly fairly dumb. Chou says in the future we’ll see more intelligent technologies like quad-core microprocessors in Videojet industrial printers. It’s also possible that, in 2017, we’ll see early signs of “thing” computing software vs. personal computing software, Chou says.
As of 2016, many industrial machines are still not connected. Next year, there will be a steady transition towards more connectivity with LoRa—a low-power, long-range wireless protocol—at the low end or 60 GHz wireless technology at the high end.
Note: The IoT Institute has launched a course titled “IoT Fundamentals & Examples of Business Transformation” based on Dr. Chou’s book, Precision: Principles, Practices and Solutions for the Internet of Things.
Next year, data collection will move to the cloud, predicts Timothy Chou. And it probably won’t be based on SQL, he says. “Maybe we’ll see purpose-built collection services, and one of the big purposes will be to use AI algorithms to recognize not only someone’s speech but also how to optimize the operations of a machine,” he explains.
3. Recruiting Will Remain a Challenge for Organizations with IoT Initiatives
There is a huge difference between the Internet of Things and regular Internet. An average person now spends hours on the Internet each day. And scores of recent college grads covet working for tech companies ranging from Apple to Salesforce. But organizations launching digital transformation projects including smart cities and industrial facilities face a tougher time in recruiting talent.
Complicating matters is that it remains a challenge to find enough workers to secure the Internet of Things. 45 percent of IoT companies struggle to find security professionals, according to a TEKsystems survey. 30 percent report having difficulty finding digital marketers.
4. Companies Will Develop More Sensical IoT Products, But It Won’t Be Easy
In the early days of the Internet of Things, many vendors have attempted to woo consumers by adding connectivity to nearly every consumer device imaginable: couches, toothbrushes, tea kettles, coffeemakers, washing machines, and so on. Consumers mostly aren’t buying it.
Companies developing industrial IoT products have done a better job at understanding the needs of their clients, but many have continued to focus more on their technology than market demands.
More companies are now learning: Just because you can connect something to the Internet doesn’t mean that you should. In 2017, we will see a growing number of consumer-facing connected products that use connectivity to solve real problems.
