In a recent report telecoms giant Verizon says the Internet of Things (IoT) has gone mainstream. Is that really so?
Five macrotrends
In the report entitled State of the Market: Internet of Things 2016 Verizon identifies five macrotrends that are said to drive IoT adoption:
- Rising consumers expectations
- Monetisation of big data
- Industry standards enabled through forthcoming regulatory change
- Technology innovation (i.e. 5G)
- Security experts keeping pace with threats
Uniting these trends, Verizon says, is the opportunity for revenue growth. In other words: IoT is being adopted because there is a profit to be had.
Let’s examine the above trends in some detail. Do they really support the claim that IoT has gone mainstream?
Rising consumers expectations
Verizon claims consumers are starting to expect more from their smartphones, and that they would particularly do so if an IoT was here and working. But the fact is that most devices are still ‘dumb’. Verizon says that this trend is 3-5 years away, awaiting higher levels of automation provided by smart devices.
There is no doubt that consumers would use their smartphones in new ways if they were able to, but this seems more like a self-fulfilling prophecy than an existing consumer trend.
Monetisation of big data
The report says that “[d]ata monetisation will become required competency”, but that “only 8% of businesses are using more than 25% of their IoT data,” as of now.
Again, this seems more like a prediction of a trend to come than one that is already here.
The IoT will certainly bring rich opportunities for data monetisation, but as of now that same problem of dumb devices is stopping this from happening. Or simply: organisations are not set up to use the data they collect.
Verizon says that “[n]early 50% of businesses expect to be using more than 25 % of their data over the next 2 to 3 years.”
Does that require the use of the label ‘mainstream’?
72% OF ORGANISATIONS FEEL THAT IoT IS CRITICAL TO THEIR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
Industry standards enabled through forthcoming regulatory change
Regulation is always lagging behind technological innovation, and rightly so. It would make little sense to regulate an unknown field of business, only to have to revise the regulation constantly, or worse: stifle innovation in its infancy.
Verizon is right to point out that regulatory change will help mature the IoT by enforcing the use of standards.
But this regulatory change is yet to happen. The industry is still waiting for these standards. Wouldn’t ‘mainstream’ mean that the standards were already here and working?
Technology innovation
Yes, of course. Technology innovation will help drive a technology-based innovation like the IoT. Without it nothing would happen.
The particular innovations Verizon have in mind are: “Network connectivity, low power devices and IoT platforms.” These will in turn: “democratize innovation by creating more tools for developers and enabling businesses to scale their IoT deployments from millions to billions of connections more cost-efficiently.”
What they really want to sell us is the new 5G network that they claim:
“not only promises to make autonomous solutions such as cars and robotics a reality, but will also usher in new categories of uses cases, such as virtual and augmented reality for IoT deployments.”
As with the other macrotrends reviewed here, this one seems a few years away.
Security experts keeping pace with threats
This is, if anything, more of a statement of hope, than the identification of a real hard trend.
According to a recent article on ZDNet Linux founder Linus Torvalds says that “[j]ob one is to get the job done. In a new industry things will get done without security. Security plays second fiddle.”
Meaning: the people who are driving IoT innovation are not working from a security perspective. They are trying to find ways of delivering IoT services that deliver on their primary promise: to connect all kinds of devices to the internet.
To claim, like Verizon does, that “[s]ecurity experts are keeping up with the development of technology by looking to arising threat vectors,” is therefore not stating the whole case.
Mainstream or not?
It seems that Verizon have prematurely announced the mainstream arrival of the IoT.
What they have announced, however, is their eagerness for it to become mainstream – and for Verizon to become a key player in providing its infrastructure.
Want to find out more about the internet of things? Make sure you sign up to the DSMLF meeting in April and join your peers for a lively debate on the matter.