The holiday season is coming up, which means the trendiest gadgets are going to be hitting shelves at discounted prices. With Internet of Things (IoT) devices becoming more and more affordable, many households are starting to embrace a more connected lifestyle. While it may be some time before Americans start using color-matching clothing and self-driving cars, we will see more ordinary IoT implementation. So what objects are we going to see over the holidays? Let’s look at some of the most popular items on the market today.
- The Kwikset Kevo Smart Lock. Kevo Smart Lock users can open their doors with a touch of a finger by using the Kevo mobile app or attaching a Bluetooth enabled fob to their keychain. Users can add, delete and disable eKeys for friends and family, and monitor all lock activity from their phones. So no more juggling grocery bags while trying to find which pocket the house key is in.
- BiKN Phone Case and Tags. The BiKN system is simple: attach a smart case to your iPhone, attach tags to your commonly misplaced items, download the BiKN app, and never lose track of your keys again. You can also “join” multiple phones in a household, in case one person misplaces their phone. The idea is that you can easily find your keys, pets, and even children by attaching a small dongle and keeping tabs on your phone.
- WeMo Switch. The WeMo Switch is a Wi-Fi enabled electronics monitoring system meant for those who often face “did I leave the iron on?” anxiety. By plugging the WeMo switch into an outlet, then plugging your electronics into the WeMo switch, you can remotely control usage from anywhere. The system includes other iterations, such as motion detecting or usage reporting products.
While this list might give you some gift ideas for the forgetful person in your life, it also demonstrates how mainstream IoT technology is becoming. These handy devices are easy to install and cost relatively little to buy and implement. As they find their ways into more and more households across the US, you can expect the need for more bandwidth, data transport and data storage to keep climbing. Deloitte recently predicted that soon machines will generate more data than people will, as connected devices can communicate, analyze and share information all without human intervention.
Communications Service Providers (CSPs) will continue to see more demand in high speed networks, cloud storage and computing power. So what tactics can you use to capitalize on IoT development?
- Launch a campaign to bump customers to the next tier of service. Use the gift-giving season to make your case for higher network speeds by educating customers on the capabilities of a larger pipe. What good is that new home security system without the connectivity to support it?
- Break in a partnership with an anchor institution. Maybe your company can afford to gift one of these IoT technologies to a school or medical campus nearby and offer a temporary discounted service rate to get implementation off the ground. These institutions can later advocate for you and influence the community around them.
- Temporarily offer a unique activation gift. Gift cards are appreciated, but you can generate more buzz with a limited time gift like a connected fitness tracker or smart watch. When everyone’s budgets are tight, an enticing bonus gift like this could mean the difference between landing a new customer and losing them to a competitor.
These are just a few simple ways to use emerging IoT technology to your advantage. Want to talk more? Email us to discuss more revenue-generating tactics based on the Internet of Things.