We need not mention that there is a big hype around the Internet of Things (IoT) now, which is spread across all types of industries. New IoT enabled products are being announced by many brands, ranging from home appliances to industrial machinery. With many biased predictions as to where the IoT market is going, we will try to identify the reality in the IoT industry and how it will further evolve in the future.
When we try to consider the IoT applications in real-time, we may measure three major things:
- What most of the users search on the internet regarding IoT.
- What people discuss on social platforms.
- What people rate the most.
Without much ado, let us start to discuss the top IoT apps of the time.
- IoT smart home
Among all the applications of IoT, the smart home stands out. Being used widely, the smart home is largely discussed as an essential utility across the channels. On exploring the Google search stats, we can see that about 60,000 people search for the keyword “Smart Home” each week, which is not a surprise. All existing home appliances and electronic brands and many specialized startups are now exploring the potential of IoT in smart home applications. Estimated funding for Smart Home startups last year was about $2.5 billion. This list includes many renowned startups, such as AlertMe or Nest, and many big giants like Haier, Philips, Belkin, etc.
- Smart wearables
Smart wearables are out there for quite some time and are in the limelight. The consumers wait for the latest release of Apple’s smartwatch or smart fitness bands by the big brands. Three are many renowned brands and startups now into the wearable innovations, and the products they bring out are ready to excite the new generations. You can see many such products like the Sony Smart B Trainer, LookSee bracelet, and Myo Gesture Control, to name a few. Among the startups in IoT, smart wearable makers like Jawbone are getting the biggest funding.
- Smart city
A smart city is a wider concept, which spans a range of use cases. It incorporates many specialties ranging from smart water distribution to autonomous traffic management. Other fundamental needs like waste management, security, environment monitoring, etc. too are controlled smartly in this concept. Many of the standard Smart City solutions also promise to resolve challenges people have on living in the cities. IoT solutions are now constantly innovating Smart City solutions to resolve traffic congestion, noise pollution and make city living much safer. For big data and database solutions for such large-scale applications of IoT, you may get the assistance of remote administration services like RemoteDBA.com.
- Smart grids
These are special applications. A smart grid may use the input about the electricity supplier behavior and that of the consumers in an automated way to enhance the efficiency of power distribution. It can analyze various factors like reliability, efficiency, and economics of electricity distribution and utilization. We can see that this concept is a search on Google around 41,000 times monthly, which shows its popularity among the public. However, on checking Twitter, we can see not much volume, which shows that people do not have much to discuss. However, we may expect this to be a frontline technology that people will frequently discuss in the future.
- Connected cars
Cars connect applications are there in plenty now. The connected car is now a norm, which comes up with many features. It is a fact that the technology development cycles in the automotive sector may take 2-4 years on average to mature and establish. So, we have not started to hear much buzz about the concept of the connected car yet, but it is widely used. We are getting to the peak of its usage slowly. There are many established brands and brave startups working on different connected car innovations. You can see that Ford and BMW etc. are now researching the next-generation connected car solutions, and other giants also follow suit. Apple, Microsoft, Google, Android all have either announced or already released their connected car solutions.
- Industrial internet
The industrial internet is another unique concept like the Internet of Things, which is slowly gaining popularity. Researchdone by Cisco and Gartner now shows that IoT and industrial internet concepts are now going hand in hand to reach their fullest potential to change the industrial world. However, many people have not heard about the industrial internet as a standalone entity yet. Compared to smart homes or smart wearables, the industrial internet has notcreated such hype yet. However, there are a lot of things going about it. While exploring the searches, we can see that the industrial internet has its biggest push from the Twitter platform, with nearly 1700 tweets about this topic each month.
- Connected Health or Telemedicine
This is surely a big thing, which, however, is still a sleeping giant for the most relevant IoT applications. The connected healthcare system compromises many smart medical devices with seamless connectivity to revolutionize various healthcare specialties like consultation, diagnosis, treatment, and even medical office management. So, it bears the immense potential to contribute largely to the wellbeing of people and the functioning of medical facilities. We can see that Connected Health has not yet reached to masses.
- Smart retailing
This is slowly starting to take off lately. The popularity of the ranking of smart retail on the internet shows that it remains a niche segment. You may be seeing hardly one LinkedIn post about smart retail per month, whereas you may see about 400+ related to a smart home. You knowingly or unknowingly come across proximity-based marketing, which comes as an innovative subset of the concept of smart retail.
The other smart solutions involving the Internet of Things include but are not limited to smart supply chain, smart farming, office automation, libraries, industrial management, store management, human resources management, and so on. When you are trying to adopt IoT solutions, it is important to understand your need to devise the most appropriate customized IoT suite for you.