The Power and the Future of the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things bears the power to transform our world. And although we have already started seeing its wonders and its incredible impact, we actually are still at the beginning of this huge, transformational journey. Here, we are going to discuss the current power of the IoT and its numerous applications, the consumer benefits of this innovation, and the big future that it potentially bears.

 Applications of the Internet of Things

Smart Home: 

This is one of the most common application of the Internet of Things. As long as you fill your home with products connected to the internet, you can achieve a smart home teeming with ease, convenience, and comfort.

Let’s cite another example of how IoT works in a smart home. While cooking dinner, to make the most out of your time, you can just ask a voice assistant, like that of Amazon Echo’s Alexa, to read you the breaking news stories for the day—all while getting on with chopping those vegetables.

IoT is bound to change the way we live. It is the future that we all can look forward to.

Wearables: 

The normal things you wear are now taken to the next level because of IoT. The usual watch is no longer just for telling time. We now have things like the Apple Watch and other smartwatches that enable phone calls, text messaging, and many more. Some wearables in the fitness world are also revolutionized by helping people get important data about their workout. The possibilities are endless.

Smart Cities: 

The Internet of Things can go beyond transforming homes—it has the potential to transform cities across the world. It solves actual problems citizens usually face every day. With the right setup, it can eliminate issues with traffic congestion, pollution, noise, and crime. Smartly managing the needs of millions of urban dwellers is the next big thing that IoT is going to pull off.

Connected Car: 

In the recent years, connected cars started to spread thanks to the advancement of the Internet of Things. Drivers can now connect to their cars through their smartphones. Along with the rise of app integration, people can now enjoy easy navigation with Google Maps, instant music playlist with Spotify, and so on. The biggest innovation we can expect is that of Tesla’s. This electric car giant is looking to the creation of solar roofs with battery storage integrated. The connected car technology is estimated 10 times safer than traditional driving.

 Consumer Benefits from The Internet of Things

Again, the IoT tags along doors of opportunities across industries. And consumers are the key recipient of its glaring benefits. Here are some IoT consumer benefits worth noting.

Responsive services.

IoT enables service providers to get better insights that they can use to improve their services and respond to the actual needs of their target market. This is also because companies can easily identify their strengths and weaknesses, helping them know what to immediately correct.

Convenience. 

People can save both time and money because of the level of automation the IoT brings. From reading the energy meters to checking the product expiration dates, The Internet of Things slowly eradicates life’s inconveniences, big or small.

Enhanced experiences. 

The examples of enhanced experiences with IoT could be countless. For example, a product (kitchen ingredient) can be linked to various recipe suggestions online. This instant access, though may sound trivial to some, is an added boost to make the world a more convenient place to be.

Efficiency gains passed on. 

Because businesses can cut down costs due to the enhanced and optimized internal processes, this efficiency gain could be passed on to the customers, making them enjoy more affordable deals.

Solving offline safety and security issues. 

You can now secure your valuables better with the Internet of Things. Imagine having an instant way to track and find your lost items. IoT offers this and more.

Remote control. 

This is related to smart home development. Consumers can now have control over their home and other appliances even if they’re not physically there. You can switch on/off your lights, heater, AC unit, and so on even if you’re miles away.

These are just some of the many things the Internet of things can offer to the consumers, and we can expect the future to be much, much better.

The Future of IoT

The Internet of Things hold a big future, but let’s focus on the top things that the future will mold in the IoT space:

By 2020, it’s predicted that there’ll be over 20 billion connected devices.

In 2015, only 4.9 million things were connected to the internet. A year after, the number quickly raised to more than 3.9 billion. With our fast-paced world today, this prediction by 2020 is surely not an impossibility.

There will be more Smart Cities

The adoption of smart technologies is now prevalent and will continue to be so until it becomes ubiquitous. The data could be collected from video camera surveillance systems, visitor kiosks, bike rental stations, and even public utility vehicles. Cities will become more efficiently managed, and people’s lives will be way easier.

Artificial intelligence will be playing a big role in the Advanced technology

In the future, more homes will enjoy efficient and effective machine assistants that can be voice-controlled devices. With the advent of machine learning that enables devices to “learn” without having to be programmed, our home devices will just learn through the data you feed them and function according to your preferences. This is the power of IoT which will help in collecting enormous amount of data that will help in analytics.

The Internet of Things is here to stay. It will add value to many different fields and verticals and it will change the world for the better.