Those of us that grew up in the 80’s recognize the paper towel performance metric of the ‘Quicker Picker Upper.’ Back then we trusted television ads, memorized jingles and tested our paper towels on kitchen counters across America (typically to the chagrin of our moms) but now imagine a world with connected paper towels. Where capacitive based embedded moisture sensors can actually measure the rate at which the towel wicks in what ever spill you’ve attacked. You could then see which towel is the quicker picker upper! And then connect that data to an whole paper towel social community app and share stories of which spills and which brands match the best! Think Prius owners sharing MPG strategies but for the modest paper towel. It would be glorious!
While Forbes had a pretty good article in on Kids Wearables back in March, they missed a huge opportunity in the kids wearable space. Impact tracking! You’re not worried about kids getting their 10,000 steps in when they can’t even walk yet. But you do worry about falls. If you’ve ever parented a little one, you know the drill. You hear a crash, a boom, something that makes your heart stop and you rush into the room where this cacophony of disaster originated. You are greeted with silence, a look, a pause, and then a wail. Because you don’t know whether this boom registered a 8.7 on the Richter scale, you don’t know whether to console or open up a can of “you’re okay, toughen up” love. Imagine if we could instrument toddlers with the same accuracy of crash test dummies! Is that a fake cry or did they really hit the floor at 50 mph? So imagine your child is wearing a onesie with more sensors than your average crash test dummy. You could immediately be alerted where they hit, how hard and if it hurts. That critical bit of evidence could be the difference between a calming mosey or a panic sprint to your child. Imagine the tears saved on both sides with this time saving concept in place!
Harvey has hit Houston and the surrounding areas very hard and that’s an understatement. Carriers have scrambled, to support the disaster, offering free calls and data to those impacted by the storm. Google Loon has been mentioned as one way to provide connectivity to impacted regions but balloons do not do as well in hurricane force winds. Imagine then a set of floatable base stations, leveraging either cellular or unlicensed wi-fi technologies, to provide on demand connectivity in the stricken region. These floats could be pre-installed in threat areas as well as the apps to make use of them. Additional floats could be dropped in by air after the winds die down to increase coverage or replace damaged nodes in the network. Power would only have to work for the first few days, when connectivity is so critical yet when those resources are most strained.
Thoughts? Imagine if we had automatically deployed floating wireless base stations to provide connectivity during that critical first 72 hours after a disaster…
A few years ago I was interviewed for a story on what were the barriers to adoption within the overall Smart Home market. One of the key that came out of the research I shared was the ongoing challenges that DIY consumers had with installation. Issues of WiFi range and configuration, device interoperability and just plain hardware quality kept consumers from having the joy of a more intelligent home within the first five minutes of opening the box.
First Half 2015 Consumer Perceptions of Smart Home Installation Experience by Category. Notice that how high the percentage of reviews mention a negative experience with installation.
Not only is there a lot of red in 2015, the percentage of green was a bit anemic as well. Consumers were really wrestling with Wi-Fi configuration, and other major stumbling blocks as they work through the agonies of installation. Cut forward to 2017 and there is an happier ending approaching, or better yet, happier beginning.
First Half 2017 Consumer Perceptions of Smart Home Installation Experience by Category
Looking at the same slice of consumer perceptions in the first half of 2017, we see less negative perceptions in some segments, growth in positive views across all segments. Suffice to say, the installation experience has improved within the Smart Home, correlating with a growth in the overall market as well.
Segment
% Reduction in Frustration
Smart Detectors
22.9%
Smart Doorbell Cameras
33.9%
Security Cameras
32.6%
Smart Lights
47.6%
Smart Sensors
12.2%
Smart Thermostats
15.1%
Smart Switches and Plugs
32.8%
As you can see in the table above, some of the most frustrating segments like Doorbell Cameras and Switches and Plugs saw significant improvements in their installation process for DIY consumers. These manufacturers worked hard to smooth out the kinks in their Out Of Box Experience and we see evidence of this in our consumer data.
Unfortunately, we are not out of the woods just yet. For the overall market, oddly, the frustration levels remained the same. So for each of these categories that have improved, there are categories where installation became more frustrating, including Smart Locks and Smart Home Hubs and Kits. Part of this, based on the market growth over the past few years, we are moving from the early adopters (many of which still have their X10 systems running) into the main part of the market. It is understandable that as a wider part of the target market embraces the promise of the Smart Home, more opportunities for frustration in installation can arise. The fact it is not substantial worse portends even more improvements in the future.
If you want to stay on top of consumer reaction to Smart Home, leverage the Argus Analyzer where we gather and analyzer all of the consumer review data across a broad array of devices and mobile applications. Like a focus group that never goes homes, subscribers can access the views of millions of consumers, getting early warning of the success and failure of products before the numbers come out and unpack the details as to why consumer sentiment is changing within the Smart Home market. Sign up for a free account today!
Looking back over the over one million Internet of Things tweets during the month of July, we routinely look to see which sub segments of IoT received the most mindshare. Though it rarely correlates to market share (Asset Tracking, one of the big early wins in IoT, receives very little mindshare) it is an early indicator of where the market is moving next. We published a similar analysis here and will continue this trend until the sun burns out of hydrogen or our readers tell us to stop.
Mindshare shifts in the Internet Of Things conversations between June and July 2017. Healthcare showed some impressive gains while Industrial IoT still leads within the segments.
Chatter about Industrial IoT moved past AI and Big Data for the first time in months, a clear indication that the hype (and actual deployments) around IIoT are increasing compared to June of 2017. AI and Big Data are often cobranded with IoT as they are seen as key solution elements in making sense and taking action on the projected petabytes coming from the billions of connected devices.
If you look at it, Industrial IoT is mentioned in about 40% of all IoT tweets, AI in around 30% and Big Data in about 25%. Everything else drops to Long Tail territory.
If you’re an IoT start-up, looking to get attention from experts and prospects alike, how are you making a dent within the storm of chatter happening in this market? When all of you advisors are coaching you to own a niche, how are you measuring the impact of your efforts? Sure, you slap #IoT on everyone one of your tweets announcing your launch, hoping Stacey or Junko might link back. But how do you move the needle in the data above? How do you raise the awareness of your category when all of your tools only help you push and measure your brand, in isolation?
That’s what we do at Argus Insights, providing tools and methods that give you an edge on understanding and influencing your category. We get all of the conversation, curate it using a mix of human and machine intelligence and serve it up so you can take action to move beyond the brand.
