In 2022 the IoT market grew by 21.5% taking it to $201 Billion. With estimated 19 – 23% further growth predicted in 2023, the opportunities in this space won’t be saturating anytime soon.
With every great new IoT product idea comes the temptation to be the first to get it out to market, often forgetting the old adage – you only get one chance to make a good first impression.
Aside from generating costly, eleventh-hour production changes and painful product recalls, rushing your product’s development can create crippling reputational disasters, for fledgling start-ups and long-established organisations alike.
Because of the complexity of most IoT solutions -due to the fact that they are made up of a larger number of connected parts- you must pay more attention to their design.
So how do you ensure your IoT product launches ready to wow?
Fortunately for you we’ve put together six fundamental (and easily digestible) questions that you need to answer, before developing your IoT product.
1. Data connection – data collection
Technology adds a cost to traditional non-connected products. Adding communication technology can invoke both a non-recurring and monthly recurring cost.
While it’s almost expected these days for new products to be IoT, or indeed existing to have added to them an IoT technology layer, it’s important to understand the business case and value.
Adding this layer involves adding cost into the product with possible monthly subscription costs as well as an initial and continuing stream of expenditures on product development and life cycle support.
Without a clear logic of business value, the product will struggle to survive and possibly join the ranks of good products that no longer exist. Solid research conducted before embarking on a project and an honest evaluation of the research will inform your decision and determine whether the system you consider designing makes business sense.
2. Picking the right platform is no game
When adding intelligence to a product that wasn’t connected before, many start-ups select hobbyist-grade boards. The trouble is, these developer platforms may not suitable for large-scale deployment.
If the device proves successful and starts generating serious demand, production can’t scale because you can’t source thousands of that type of board. Hobbyist off-the-shelf platforms are useful for proof-of-concept (PoC) and as platforms for software developers, but do not confuse these PoC systems with those that are production ready!
Many of these hobbyist platforms to not have the certifications needed for a real product and as any experienced hardware developer who has been creating production volume product will tell you, a development system is not a high-volume extensible platform.
You should only source components and modules for your product, that will be available in the anticipated volumes and appropriately costed now – and in the future.
3. Design like Warren G – Regulate
Regulatory testing is another important part of any IoT product design effort. Regulatory requirements and certifications must be factored into the design.
Because they are connected, IoT products must be tested for radiated emissions and susceptibility. If they plug into an outlet, conducted emissions and susceptibility could come into play.
Additionally, in some countries the cellular carriers must perform testing to provide certification for your product for deployment on their infrastructure. Depending on how you implement the cellular technology, this step could take months and be very costly, or indeed impossible.
Selecting components that are pre-certified can drastically cut down the time and expense but don’t count on it. Pre-certified parts are more expensive, but they radically reduce the headaches involved with getting certifications later.
Lastly, where and when do you plan to sell?
It is not practical, particularly in a start-up, to expect worldwide sales of fully certified devices on the same calendar date. While most standards of safety, communications and cellular certifications are similar, pick your target countries carefully and think about international rollouts over a period of time.
Many countries are grouped to work under common set of standards but there are outlier countries with unique standards which, while similar, are not identical to the more widely used standards.
To be continued….
Hopefully points one to three have given you some food for thought, watch this space for the second part of how to develop products for IoT – coming soon.
IoT market stats taken from www.iot-analytics.com