Maybe, just maybe, our chuckling at the Internet of Silly Things (IoST) is a little premature. Maybe the point of the consumer IoT hinges on the premise that technology takes 10 years to become invisible. A decade for the new to become the way things happen. A decade for even the grumpiest of editors and publishers to say ‘well, OK, I suppose it might work.’ It is also about common sense.
Two recent examples show that, as usual, the innovation is being driven by the retail sector.
One example, demonstrated at last week’s Mobile World Congress, is a collaboration between Pizza Hut, Visa and Accenture. From a technology viewpoint it is about connected cars, payment technology and quite complex integration. From a consumer’s point of view it is about ordering a pizza on the way home from work.
Another example involves Domino’s Pizza, who have developed an app for wearables. Not only can a customer press one button to order ‘the usual’ he can then track the progress of the pizza, from baking to dispatch to ‘at your door.’ From one point of view it is leading edge technology innovation. From another it is a neat way of ordering pizza.
These kinds of innovations will become ‘how things happen’ as a result of the familiarity with smartphones that we now look on as mini computers that we are beginning to think of as remote controls, for everything. The next step is for them to fade into the fabric of our daily lives.
It is entirely possible – probable in fact – that by 2020, we will have become programmed to order pizzas with a click and then watch their progress, rather than, say, call the local branch and get a time for delivery.
The consumer IoT is coming. There is no doubt. Silly examples such as fridges need to be shelved for a bit, while innovative retailers apply common sense and complex technology to their customers’ behaviour. It will be interesting to see whether communications companies can apply common sense to areas that they are concentrating on such as home security. Let us hope they really understand their customers’ behaviour before launching anything too ‘innovative.’
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