Internet of Things – identifying trends and seizing opportunities
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Consider the following: a major manufacturer of DSL routers upgrades its products so that they support the EnOcean wireless protocol. Or Z-Wave. Or digitalstrom. Or Bluetooth. Or all protocols at once and even others. As a result, this router can communicate directly with corresponding sensors and actuators in the building. If a small application program is also added to the router, making it possible to visualize states and turn actuators on and off from an app, this router then becomes a versatile smart home controller.
Smart devices
When you buy a new Tv or HDD recorder these days, they usually already come with an integrated wLAN interface. There are lamps that communicate via wireless protocols. In the near future, every coffee machine, every stove and every motor for blinds will presumably come with an integrated wireless or powerline interface as a standard feature. Intelligence and the ability to communicate are thus migrating to devices. Instead of being placed in front of a coffee maker or stove, a switch actuator becomes part of the appliance. The user benefits from much higher functionality, since the integrated actuator allows the appliance to be turned on directly.
The central universal device does not necessarily have to be a router. In many cases, a separate device may make more sense. As a result, a number of alliances are being formed in the struggle for the integration platform “at the core,” such as the AllSeen Alliance, the Open Interconnect Consortium, the Thread Alliance and EEBus, to name just a few.
The future of IoT
Rather than the technical functions, it is the marketing strategies and access to the end customers that determine the winners and how the market shares are divided up. Although this development will not completely push aside the current trends in bus systems or dedicated smart home controllers, the IoT scenario will nevertheless carve out its market share, even if it is still unclear who will hold the the majority share in the particular technologies five or ten years from now. One thing, however, is certain: to become successfully established in the IoT segment, it must be possible to integrate the products into cross-standard solutions (as is possible with EnOcean technology). Ultimately, the IoT trend cannot be ignored and should be taken into account in business strategies.
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