In the past few years, many companies had tried to capture market share in various industries to become the leader in the Internet of Things (IoT) in their industry. If you go into an appliance store you many see refrigerators with a massive screen on the front door with the label Samsung slapped on it. A large android tablet at your fingertips to do want ever you want to do with it. Send an email, create a shopping list, or even write the great American novel (a modern-day standing desk). Every time that I am in a store that sells these beasts of an application I do not see a single soul in front of the refrigerator. If you have one or know someone that bought one please leave a comment in what you think of these type of appliance.
A massive company like Alphabet, which is heavily invested in the Internet and related application, include the two largest Search Engine in the world, Google and Youtube and the one the major web browsers, Chrome. Also, Alphabet is creating an ecosystem of IoT. As mentioned above about the Samsung refrigerator with the Android operating system (made by Google), which is commonly seen in smartphones and tablets. With this operating system in place and with their countless application made by Google like Gmail, G suite, Chrome browser, Maps, and so on allow them to tie services into one account that that can be accessed from multiple devices and share to co-workers, family, and friends. The benefit of the cloud that is paid for my you data or a monthly subscribe cost.
The evolution of the Internet and search engines are finding new battleground for these companies, the most recent one is the voice command searches. Apple has Siri, Amazon has Alexa, Microsoft has Cortana, and Google has Google Assistant. Hidden in your phones, tablets, computers, smart speakers, watches, and maybe in your home thermostat were recently discovered was a microphone in our NEST thermostat.
A massive company like Alphabet with its deep pockets and multiple research companies creating products that might be used by the average consumer, still has fails in the economics of sales. Going back a few years, in 2013 Google had introduced Google glasses for about two years they were selling them and they have stopped.
Another product that is getting bad reviews not for the hardware, but for the software is Chrome OS. A device that is running that has an operating system based on the Chrome browser. If we are ready for IoT this concept should be taking off, but it is struggling. Google has been making a constant improvement in the software. The biggest complaints are; you need the Internet to run your application and the lack of applications. In the past few months Google has been moving the operating system closer to Windows and Mac machine place more functionality in the machine with less reliance on the Internet connection.
In conclusion, we are seeing more and more devices being connected to the Internet with easier access to information that we can share with friend, family, and co-worker, but the economics of IoT is not at a level that I would say is successful. The companies that make these produces need the consumer to buy into the concept that they require these devices to be connected to the internet and it adds benefits that outweighs the additional cost increase.
Leave a Reply