When initially the internet was introduced, didn’t it feel like magic to all of us? The possibilities and their uses were endless, overtaking the market quickly. Many excited consumers and market specialists believe the Internet of Things (IoT) could be the next big breakthrough. Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning and decision-making, and data analytics have been given a new meaning and horizon. IoT will undoubtedly affect every aspect of the lives of consumers and businesses, but it is still at a nascent stage. IoT plans would need mature organizations that can provide professional services, suitable human resources, and the ability to tackle this new technology’s challenges.
Many experts have also claimed that although this technology is bound to change all consumers’ lives, businesses and corporates will reap the most immediate benefits when tonnes of data and analytics would be at their disposal. Let’s see what the tarot cards say about the future of IoT.
- Ecosystems and devices: The foundation of IoT: An efficient platform that sends the data and offers device control and application development based on the analyzed information is bound to emerge in a couple of years. A process of standardization has become important for complex projects. For example, setting up a smart city would require solutions and systems from several vendors. Information sharing becomes difficult as the number of vendors increases, as all these systems follow different protocols.
Developing new ecosystems by different market players would rattle the cages of smart cars, devices, and cities. This will result in cut-throat competition between diverse ecosystems in the future. The more versatile and adaptable the ecosystem is, the higher the chances of success rate.
In other words, they could succeed if the devices are updated with changing technology. With the analysis of the stored data, multiple products, services, and applications would be launched, increasing competition and improving customer satisfaction.
- Development of Edge Analytics: Many companies boasted about the real-time analytics in their ecosystem and how helpful and fast the process could be. Sounds too good to be true; probably it is. It takes seconds for the sensor to grasp information, classify it and send only relevant information and data to the cloud ecosystem. Further, analyzing bulk data and sending the solutions could waste much time. This latency could be accepted in some industries, but in others, like robotics controlled remotely, this latency level would be unacceptable. Here, edge analytics comes into the picture, proposing complex analytical capabilities in the sensors themselves. As these sensors would analyze the data, it will surely decrease the latency by leaps and bounds.
- For the masses: Digging deep into the discussion, you might feel that such complex technology would take money to configure and operate. But many SaaS solutions would target medium-sized businesses by controlling such costs so that multiple enterprises can reap its benefits. It is imperative to note that IoT could provide customization to smaller firms as it will provide factory data access.
- Customer satisfaction to the next level: The current trend has always focused on customer satisfaction and after-sale services. The marketing concept states that the customer-firm relationship starts before product manufacturing and stays even after the sales. Many IoT innovations will help take these services to the next level. The product can be remotely monitored, but predicting future maintenance and developing better products would become easier.
- The threat to security: IoT devices make the thing susceptible to physical tampering, hacks, and information attacks. Encrypting the information so that the data is not hacked or tampered with becomes most important. Some specific codes can also activate the device, ultimately draining the battery.
The opportunities for IoT are endless, but so are the challenges. IoT would need to continuously evolve to a more sophisticated design and system to stay in the mainstream.
