According to a survey last year, less than 50% of appliances that are internet-capable ever get connected. When I talk to manufacturers, I often hear even worse numbers, sometimes below 30%! Despite many years and billions of dollars of investment into the “Internet of Things”, this lack of adoption makes it clear that even if a device can be connected, consumers don’t see the value in most cases. I think it’s time to admit that the core idea of IoT has failed.
The biggest obstacle is the setup tax. All of our communication technologies, from WiFi to cellular, cost money to use, and so require authentication and billing accounts. Your fridge or toaster probably doesn’t have a full-featured user interface, and so you’re expected to download a phone app, and then use that to indirectly set up your appliance. This adds multiple extra steps, and anyone who’s ever worked on a customer funnel means that every additional stage means losing some people along the way.
Believe it or not, I’m still optimistic about the future of embedded technology! I just get frustrated that a superficial analogy to previous technology cycles has focused so much academic and commercial attention on bringing an internet connection to everyday objects. Instead, I think it will be much more fruitful to spend our time tackling issues users actually care about.
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