4 ms·

I always thought IoT was a stupid idea. From day 1 it sounded pointless and unprofitable.

ashtonkem 5y ago
It's a great idea ... for industrial processes and machines. Unfortunately this is not where the hype is, nor where continual profits are. Industrial customers have a nasty habit (from the seller's perspective) of buying stable stuff that they can run for decades, which tends to rule out planned obsolescence based profits.
- flyingcircus3 5y ago
  There are few to no compelling use cases for consumers creating a true network of internet connected things, because they don't have distributed physical things. If all your stuff is nearby, and isn't in large quantities, then the internet, or computer networking in general, is not the path of least resistance to control/monitor/utilize it to some greater application. Controlling X with your phone is novel at first, but its nearly always an incremental improvement on controlling X with physical interfaces. Its not a killer app by any definition. It's businesses that have lots of stuff in lots of places to track and control. In these scenarios, a microcontroller with a radio is not just an incrementally better solution competing with an existing alternative, but the only feasible solution.
  - ashtonkem 5y ago
    I know, that's why I was talking about industrial use cases....
    - flyingcircus3 5y ago
      My sincerest apologies for agreeing with you and expanding on your points.
perfopt 5y ago
It is not a stupid idea. Most companies cannot make too much money from designing/selling the hardware. On the other hand there is money to be made from the data collected from these IoTs and selling device management and updates as a service. ARM is just not the right company to make that happen. They are fantastic at what they do but not software services, big data, etc
- threshold 5y ago
  Do we really want every household item squirreling information back to the manufacturer about our personal habits? Exactly who stands to benefit from that? Consumers will lose a fortune and shun the technology.
  - treyfitty 5y ago
    Of course no one “wants” that. But let’s rewind 20 years ago and ask: “do we really want our telephones squirreling info back to the manufacturer about our personal habits?” Sounds equally absurd.
    - panqueque 5y ago
- detaro 5y ago
  If it only has benefits for the maker, it sounds pretty stupid...
sschueller 5y ago
You can do IoT correct and you can do it wrong. Most decide that you need to pull out your phone or register a device before you can use it. No one wants to download and app to be able to operate a juicer. However a coffee machine for example could be extended with optional features not hindering the core functionality.
jamil7 5y ago
I contracted for an IoT company that built hardware and software for the manufacturing industry, it was very profitable. I agree that the consumer side “smart toaster” part is garbage though.

It's a great idea ... for industrial processes and machines. Unfortunately this is not where the hype is, nor where continual profits are. Industrial customers have a nasty habit (from the seller's perspective) of buying stable stuff that they can run for decades, which tends to rule out planned obsolescence based profits.

flyingcircus3 5y ago
There are few to no compelling use cases for consumers creating a true network of internet connected things, because they don't have distributed physical things. If all your stuff is nearby, and isn't in large quantities, then the internet, or computer networking in general, is not the path of least resistance to control/monitor/utilize it to some greater application. Controlling X with your phone is novel at first, but its nearly always an incremental improvement on controlling X with physical interfaces. Its not a killer app by any definition. It's businesses that have lots of stuff in lots of places to track and control. In these scenarios, a microcontroller with a radio is not just an incrementally better solution competing with an existing alternative, but the only feasible solution.
- ashtonkem 5y ago
  I know, that's why I was talking about industrial use cases....
  - flyingcircus3 5y ago
    My sincerest apologies for agreeing with you and expanding on your points.

perfopt 5y ago

It is not a stupid idea. Most companies cannot make too much money from designing/selling the hardware. On the other hand there is money to be made from the data collected from these IoTs and selling device management and updates as a service. ARM is just not the right company to make that happen. They are fantastic at what they do but not software services, big data, etc

threshold 5y ago
Do we really want every household item squirreling information back to the manufacturer about our personal habits? Exactly who stands to benefit from that? Consumers will lose a fortune and shun the technology.
- treyfitty 5y ago
  Of course no one “wants” that. But let’s rewind 20 years ago and ask: “do we really want our telephones squirreling info back to the manufacturer about our personal habits?” Sounds equally absurd.
  - panqueque 5y ago
detaro 5y ago
If it only has benefits for the maker, it sounds pretty stupid...

sschueller 5y ago

You can do IoT correct and you can do it wrong. Most decide that you need to pull out your phone or register a device before you can use it. No one wants to download and app to be able to operate a juicer. However a coffee machine for example could be extended with optional features not hindering the core functionality.

jamil7 5y ago

I contracted for an IoT company that built hardware and software for the manufacturing industry, it was very profitable. I agree that the consumer side “smart toaster” part is garbage though.