What the Internet of Things really means for product strategies & the digital economy Posted on : Apr 27 - 2015

The Internet of Things (IoT) is clearly a massive trend this year, and there has been a flurry of news about this technology after recent big industry events, like Mobile World Congress. Indeed, there isn’t a lack of predictions around this, over the last few months in particular, such as Gartner’s prediction that the IoT will continue to expand, propelled by the ubiquity of user-oriented computing.

The analyst house predicts this will be replicated both in industrial and in operational contexts, as it will be the focus of digital business products and processes. Further to this, Gartner believes embedding technology more deeply into products and our way of life will create touch points for users everywhere, and this will form the foundation of digital businesses in Europe.

The IoT will continue to be the biggest trend in the tech industry, and will have the most significant impact on consumers and businesses operating within the Digital Economy in Europe.

With tech hype and trends in the marketplace, we’re always interested to understand what the industry itself thinks of emerging technology, so we went directly to the early adopters’ community to capture their views on what they believe the future holds for the IoT, wearable tech, mobile payments and privacy.

Research by NESS (SES) into early adopters reveals that there is an average of 7.5 devices connected to the Internet in one household compared with an average of one device per household ten years ago.

Devices are now connected in a variety of different, more interesting ways including: 25% via a smart watch, 9% to the TV, 15% to a games console, 1% to a vacuum cleaner and 6% to the washing machine.

The consensus was that wearables would be mainstream in three years time, with a small percentage believing the Apple Watch will be the game changer (relevant to the recent sale of the device, of course!), but the majority believe it will take a while for the general public to embrace wearables in their daily lives. View more