Is The IoT Just Too Expensive?

In a study sponsored by ARM and IBM that should come as a frigid splash of arctic seawater on the IoT hype curve, the price of IoT infrastructure, more than security concerns, is slowing IoT rollouts across the industry.

Three takeaways:

1. The report doesn’t divulge details on the definition of “IoT infrastructure”, but this won’t come as good news to advocates of bringing high cost connectivity into the enterprise. If you are analyst looking for data to help you scrutinize cellular’s IoT forecasts for the enterprise, I’d call the EIU and ask if you can buy their crosstabs.
2. Security amazingly does not get the priority it deserves, indicating the majority of the respondents think they have not been hacked yet or their future IoT system won’t be hacked.
3. The lack of standards in what we are now calling the IoT (I exclude traditional IoT technologies like passive RFID from this mix) seems to be bothering surprisingly few people. The reality is that the IoT is in a state of standards anarchy right now apart from some application layer interoperability happening in cases like Alljoyn. Below the application layer, there is no consensus or de facto standard in the low power wireless WAN sector and it could be years — many years, in fact — away. The low power PAN sector is dominated by Bluetooth low energy but that’s only “IoT” in the most limited sense given its tiny range. The low power LAN space remains a home automation mosh pit. In other words, any vision of ubiquitous LAN- or WAN-based IoT interoperability is years and likely more than a decade away.

You can reach me via @patdash7 or via email at pat @ haystacktechnologies dot com.

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