As IoT matures, innovation is being applied to bring together previously disparate activities into functional building blocks so developers can quickly and simply bring in integrated functions and install them in their devices.
Vincent Korstanje, the chief executive of Kigen, tells George Malim, the managing editor of IoT Now, how he foresees a need for bigger building blocks to simplify device design still further and help innovators develop solutions for a future in which today’s constraints have been addressed.
George Malim: How are sustainable consumption and greater appetite among consumers to subscribe rather than to buy, changing the landscape of IoT?
Vincent Korstanje: To me, the appetite for consumption is further enticed by products that are provided as a service. I think this is much more interesting than the classic product sales of today. If you take a hair straightener with internet connectivity, as an example, there is so much more to be done than simply selling the user a product.
The least amount of additional activity enabled by connectivity would be to put the customer on a payment plan, perhaps enabling them to afford a device with more features than they would previously have been able to. I think it gets much more interesting when the device is used to deduce users’ hair thickness, type and health for example. The connection can then be used to process that data and advise on tailored and personalised products, recommendations and advice, adding value for the user and potentially leading to additional revenue opportunities.
Another example is a washing machine maker that ships machines with Wi-Fi connectivity. The challenge with that is today it’s unclear what is in it for the consumer and many don’t connect their machines. In the future cellular connectivity will remove this objection because that will happen automatically. The information gathered can then be used to advise that customers could run their laundry at a lower temperature or with less soap for better results or reduce their energy usage.
In these contexts, you must think of the products differently. The value now goes beyond the provision of the straighteners or the washing machines and starts to encompass optimised usage and adjacent consumables and services. In IoT now we’re at this stage where innovation is expected. It’s like when the first mobile phones were invented, the industry didn’t foresee Uber but it did expect services to emerge. This is where IoT is, it’s the enabler of a new breed of services and business models.
Continue reading this article on Page S6 inside IoT Now Innovators Guide
