The First Wave of IoT—Blood in the Water

In the past two or three years the consumer market has seen the idea of the Internet of Things (IoT) go from a prediction to reality. The first wave of IoT products was largely fueled by the parallel innovation of crowdfunding, which allowed makers and early stage ideas to get off the ground without traditional funding sources. Many feel that the promised innovations from IoT have not yet been realized. Almost weekly another crowdfunded startup announces it’s closing its doors without ever shipping a product. Products that do ship often offer a poor user experience and are notoriously buggy and insecure. In fact, a recent article—Why Is My Smart Home So {omission} Dumb?—expresses many consumers’ opinions about IoT devices. Drawing on his personal experiences as a founder of the IoT company Emberlight, Kevin Rohling discusses the challenges he has encountered—from security and manufacturing to UX design for an IoT product. He will make comparisons to his past experiences with mobile and web products focusing on what he sees as IoT’s unsolved problems, such as monitoring and firmware management. Join Kevin as he looks forward at the forces that are shaping the next wave of IoT products—speech interfaces, new wireless standards—and the consolidation of IoT platforms.