May 29, 2016

Rumble in the IoT Jungle

I recently participated in a debate, hosted by the IEEE Communications Society, about the pros and cons of IoT standardization. My debating counterpart was the North Americas President of SigFox, a company that has so far raised over US$150m. SigFox is in the process of deploying its proprietary networking technology in 18 countries specifically for the purpose of energy-efficient and low-cost IoT applications.

Much of the debate and several of the audience questions focused on the worry about standards proliferation in the IoT market. This creates a confusing picture for business that have to make long-term product development decisions. My observations on the issue of IoT standardization were fourfold.

Apr 27, 2016

A tweet to IoT’s low-power, wide-area networking proponents

It’s amazing to think that Twitter recently turned ten years old. This milestone came on the heels of a rumored, CEO-level assessment [1] of whether to relax its longstanding 140-character limit on tweets. Some of the reaction to this development questions how Twitter, a major influencer of condensed, bite-sized communications, could pull the rug from under its core proposition.

There’s a timely lesson in Twitter’s evolution for the rapidly growing band of companies developing low-power, wide-area and small payload IoT applications.

Mar 20, 2016

Amazon or Netscape strategy?

Last week, I attended the Industrial Internet Consortium’s (IIC) member meeting in Reston, VA. This gave me an opportunity to talk to executives from several companies about their IoT market objectives. In the prior week, I interviewed a C-level executive from an IoT infrastructure services provider on the same topic.

What struck me in all these discussions was the competitive tension between short-term and strategic IoT planning. The C-level executive put it best when he described how many of his clients’ sales plans for the coming year are based on implementing bespoke solutions; it’s a quick way to get to market. Where this model breaks down is when companies are implementing their third or fourth IoT applications.

Feb 4, 2016

Reality bites for low-power wide-area IoT

A few weeks ago, I commented on a LightReading article [1] on the topic of IoT prospects for wireless operators. I received positive feedback and a few questions about my observations on the revenue drivers that will shape operator strategies over the long run. In essence, I pointed out that wireless operators can grow in three directions and that their individual strategies will be a hybrid of the alternatives.

Readers can digest the full logic of a presentation that oneM2M Partnership Project invited to deliver at a workshop hosted by ETSI [2] in December 2015. In summary, I outlined how operators can grow along three dimensions.


Jan 11, 2016

2015 in Review: The strategic balance between IoT scale and value

Corporate activity in the M2M/IoT market continues to grow in line with the roughly 30% growth rate that many market analysts forecast for connected devices. Acquisition and investment activity grew at a much faster rate over the past few years and reflects a positive corporate attitude to this important market.

Mobile network operators (MNOs) were very active especially in the low-power, wide-area networking (LPWAN) arena which is positive in terms of driving industry scale. Companies in the platform services segment were even more active highlighting the scope for value creation higher up the industry value chain. The industry dynamics between MNOs and platform service providers will set up an interesting strategic challenge – that of scale vs. value – which will affect all market participants over the coming years.

Dec 29, 2015

Vendor strategies aim to drive IoT uptake

Over the past few months, several vendors have made high profile announcements about their IoT intentions. This post takes a closer look at their activities, what we can infer about their IoT strategies and likelihood of success.

Nov 8, 2015

Lessons from IoT Week Korea


I had the good fortune to attend IoT Week Korea 2015 in Seoul during the week of 26-30 October. This was a great opportunity to check in on Korea’s 2014, IoT Master Plan [1] and gauge how this leading edge country is mastering the IoT opportunity.

It was interesting to note that the corporate sponsors for this event were SK Telecom and PTC (owner of ThingWorx). PTC, of course, has made strategic and investment commitments to capitalize on what it views as a significant market opportunity.

There were two parts to the event – a sizable display zone and a full-day conference with four parallel sessions focusing on key technologies and solutions.