2022 in Review: A Sudden Shock of Realism

Amazon opened 2022 with announcements targeting the smart home community that is forming around the Matter protocol and opportunities for IoT in non-residential sectors. These two initiatives are examples of how some large organizations are trying to have a “finger in many pies” to make the most of the variety and scope of IoT opportunities. 

2022 closed with a flurry of Matter-compliant product launches from a range of large and small businesses. The year-long journey and commitment to an industry-alliance model point to a degree of realism about the IoT market. Behind the technology fanfare, they highlight how businesses and getting to grips with commercial market-development and the technical challenges associated with interoperability, both of which are needed for scale. Meaningful collaboration seems to be taking hold compared to “go-it-alone” strategies. 

Telco Challenges in Entering Adjacent Markets

I recently come across a couple of experienced industry analysts using some variation of the term “permission to play” when talking about where telco service providers should and should not focus their strategies. As a framework, there is some merit in being disciplined about an organizations core market(s). 

However, if the framework is applied rigidly, the mantra artificially limits the scope for innovation and industry analysis. That is a growing risk for a sector that operates against a backdrop of transformative innovation. It is also a risk because the boundaries between telco, adjacent industries and emerging sectors are blurring.

2020 in Review: Corporates Adapt Their IoT Business Models

This review of 2020 corporate initiatives in the IoT market builds on a history of tracking strategic industry developments for over a decade. Two sets of corporate events that bookended the start and end of 2020 provide instructive examples of the roadmap and dead ends that characterize today’s IoT market. In the intervening months, organizations in different parts of the industry ecosystem bolstered their IoT strategies. Some developed complementary capabilities through M&A while others addressed go-to-market issues through business reorganization and product-innovation initiatives. For many organizations, however, there remain challenges in balancing short term imperatives with strategic positioning goals. There is a degree of comfort in embracing the familiar. The risk is that this leads to an under-investment in properly integrating new business approaches and complementary technologies.

2018 in Review: IoT puzzle-pieces falling into place

Compared to previous years, the pace of corporate activity in the IoT arena has settled down. This is to be expected in a maturing market cycle. This impression may be at variance with wider industry sentiment where the use of AI/Blockchain/IoT/Machine Learning labelling continues to sensationalize.

As a sign of IoT market reality, the opening event of 2018 dealt with the commercial reality. It took the form of Telefonica O2 withdrawing from the smart home market through the closure of O2 Smart Home. The year ended with a couple of more promising events for the mobile and IoT industries. I’ll touch on these later.

Most activity was concentrated among three groups: technology vendors; network operators (mobile, low-power and virtual); and, platform providers.

M2M Corporate Initatives - Strong H1-2013

Over the first half of 2013, there has been strong evidence that companies in the M2M market are continuing to implement a range of business strategies to capture new M2M service and revenue opportunities. Specifically:

• the number of corporate initiatives is more than double that for the corresponding period in 2012

• the market is no longer entirely driven by supply-side companies; several enterprises have strategically embraced M2M connectivity and have either partnered with mobile network operators or they are taking the lead role in developing new services

2G or not 2G?

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year, AT&T announced a plan to shut down its 2G network by 2017. This event formally confirms the fact that companies need to plan their connected device offerings on the basis of (more expensive) 3G modules (although it should be noted that AT&T had already adopted a '3G only' modules strategy for quite some time).

Several M2M service providers, including Aeris, Sprint and RACO Wireless, subsequently highlighted their commitment to existing, second generation networks and the M2M applications these are able to support. In essence, connected-device companies were being asked “why should they employ more costly 3G modules when (low data rate) M2M applications can be implemented with far less expensive 2G modules?”

Connected-device business models in the US Market

(published in RCR Wireless - 26 Nov 2012)

A previous article in RCR Wireless magazine highlighted the topic of new M2M business models with reference to the size and characteristics of this fast growing market opportunity. It also highlighted the central role that communications service providers (CSPs) occupy in the eco-system. Beyond traditional data plans, however, what are the new business models that will allow the full market potential to be attained?