The rise of IoT
There is now a rampant rise in predictions about the future of the Internet of Things (IoT). It is almost impossible to read a cutting edge IT article without some mention of IoT. It is now a fact that most organizations are trying to work out the role IoT will play in their future. IoT has almost taken over Big Data as the next topic companies have to crack.
To that end industry analysts are lining up to share their views on the impending growth. Recently IDC predicted that “By 2018, there will be 22 Billion IoT devices installed, driving the development of over 200,000 new IoT apps and services” and that “By 2018, IoT spending will grow 1.5X”. Gartner also shared their view that “6.4 Billion Connected ‘Things’ Will Be in Use in 2016, Up 30 Percent From 2015, and will reach 25 billion by 2020″.
At the same time the World Economic Forum (wef) put out an excellent article “5 predictions for the Internet of Things in 2016“. The article nicely brings together many predictions ending with this comment which I fully agree with. “Thousands of businesses worldwide are already reaping IoT’s rewards, and 2016 will be the year that more companies join the IoT revolution.”
In my opinion the IoT revolution is not on its way – it is already underway! To that end I agree with many of the industry analysts that 2016 could be a big year for IoT. In an earlier post I covered my thoughts on “Why the Internet of Things will change how you interact with your customers”. That post focused on the styles of “interactions” and services I expect to see organizations having to carry out with their customers because of the advent of IoT.
In this post I want to share a few thoughts on why I believe a different type of personalization is going to be driven via the growth of IoT. This personalization I believe will be welcome, if seen at all, and not seen as creepy.
