For many months now, I have been looking into the factors that would make IoT reach mass deployment. There are many IoT systems being deployed world wide, but they are not an indication of things to come. They are end to end systems installed and operated by one entity as a direct request from another business entity seeking to improve its operational efficiency or to connect "things" to the enterprise data systems. My research always indicated that there are no technological hurdles. All the building blocks, be it hardware, software, security, cloud, and connectivity are available in the market as mature products. There was no lack of killer applications or plausible use cases. My research kept pointing into the direction of the complexity or lack of a business model.
Deploying an end to end system over multiple wired and wireless networks using various technologies usually requires many players which makes the business model extremely complex, (one of the reasons always sited as to the low growth in M2M deployments.) IoT will not hit 50B end points with a complex business model, nor will it reach that point without a compelling one.
With the correct platform, and access rights, different applications from different industries may use the same data from an IoT endpoint for different services. This was the answer. If the return from one application will not justify the investment to deploy endpoints then the return from multiple applications definitely will. Now it was a question of finding the platform that enables such a configuration. Technically, we all understand that once an endpoint is securely connected to a cloud platform then it maybe accessed by different applications. But, how does the owner of the endpoint create revenue by authorizing access to multiple applications?
Let's take the case where I install IoT endpoints on lamp posts across the city (assume I have obtained the permits for that).
My endpoints gather temperature, light, pressure, humidity and pollution.
One scenario could be as such:
My endpoints are securely connected to the cloud using one of the many platforms on the market today from big guys and start-ups.
How do I sell access to these different local and global entities to enable these applications? I am in the business of deploying endpoints, not in end to end systems in specific vertical markets.
How do I sell occasional access to the whole set or just a subset in one geographical area?
Multiple established and new players have released platforms for connectivity.
These platforms provide the technology to connect IoT endpoints in a secure fashion to the cloud and to serve as a base for inter-connectivity. Now they need to be extended with a commercial element. Buying access to the data from any endpoint should be as easy as buying a magazine subscription. Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly access. These are very well established business models.
Installing a thousand nodes and selling a million access subscriptions is definitely more profitable than having those nodes be part of a single system for a single entity improving its efficiency.
To deploy 50 billion endpoints we need to create new companies that are in the business of deploying endpoints. We need to create a new market where people can easily purchase access to data from endpoints. It is only with such a scheme that IoT will truly take off.
I would love to hear from companies offering this subscription service for IoT endpoints.
I love to see the concept of "sensing-as-a-service" come to life.