WaveStorm since 2003. I’ve been a very strong advocate of the connected devices space through

2008 and 2009 have been such exciting times with amazing new devices being released (Chumby, Spykee, Rovio, Nabaztag…) yet when you look at the big picture none of those devices really turned into a mass market success (my definition of a success in consumer electronics starts somewhere between 250k/500k units shipped – usually CE projects try to be break even at 100k units).

All those devices are amazing, their internals are beauty, the level of complexity to come up with such a level of integration is amazing, and those babies can really do anything and go way beyond what they were initially aimed at. And this basically is the key concern : what are they aimed at and who needs this ?
Disregarding the fact that setting up a connected devices is a real pain (WiFi pairing really isn’t a one-step process) few strong use cases have really emerged in the market as of today.

The main ideas that have been kinda working are:

• Home surveillance (WiFi cams, Spykee…) : probably the most realistic use case of the connected devices but still nothing really exciting
• Widget screen (Chumby, Ki’i Frame, Tabbee…) : nice gizmo but quite useless at the end of the day
• Interactive toy (Nabaztag) : annoying after a few hours….
• Home automation : been around for a few decades, and it’s taking forever to take off – market super fragmented
• Sensors (RFID reader, weight scales…) : seducing potential but weak gain in your daily life

So let’s face it, creating a connected devices is still quite expensive and at a 150/300 USD price range the use cases of connected devices are far from obvious and the value of those functions v.s. price point seem a non-match thus leaving this gadgets to be aimed only at the geek community.

The mistake everyone is currently making is to try and make “universal” connected devices thus buying expensive hardware to ensure some future potential. And even the customer gets fooled buying a device while projecting himself into potential use-cases he imagines but that will probably never happen.
The consequence of this universal design is naturally a higher price point.
Marketers should really try and do their job defining the core features, and narrowing as much as possible the product around those so this price point gets within the 50-100USD range and the use case gets more clear to the end user.
Also the software on those devices has always been the week side. A lot of effort is put into building the device to put in a box, but the software being kinda intangible gets often left behind or not polished enough.

If we can see cheaper hardware, more focused devices aimed at niche markets and better software in 2010, we may see this Internet of Things coming true.
To be honest I don’t think 2010 will be the year, we probably need another 5 years for the market and the technologies to mature so that connected devices could really be used by my mom at a price she would be willing to pay.

2008 has been a pretty amazing year for consumer electronics, ranging from smarter communicating devices (better sensors, better screens, better connectivity) to amazing sales successes such as the xbox 360 beating the initial xbox sales and the Wii skyrocketing to the top.

But, lots of expectations went short:
Connected devices’ hype is on the down, while they can sense and interact with their environment like never before, no real use case has emerged to enable a steady growth beyond the hype.
Technologies such as Wireless USB or Wibree failed to deliver working mass market devices due both to technical aspects but mainly because of their need of building up a whole device ecosystem to get useful, and WiFi + Bluetooth has definitely become a standard there leaving little room for other standards.
RFID too, which was expected to launch e-wallets and many consumer applications failed to deliver their promises, due to a heavy ecosystem including banks, operators and security providers to organize.

So here come a few predictions for 2009:
First Prediction : 2009 will be the year of the introduction of the Gyroscope in many mass market devices, just like 2007 was the year of the accelerometer. This will lead to massive cost reductions over that component (currently about 10USD and should drop to sth around 2USD)
Second Prediction : 2009 will be a really bad year for connected devices, will new revisions will try to renew the hype, short of use cases and new ideas the industry will be reluctant on re-investing a lot on those devices. Yet, some small vendors will be able to create innovative devices designed to break-even under 50000 units and allowing them to leverage on the gadget fan base to build a strong learning curve. Those devices will also mostly be bound to web services.
Third Prediction : The actual trend for an all-in-one device will start to reverse as the number of sensors and use cases start growing in numerous niche markets (ie fitbit) (read business opportunity). Mobile phones who have imposed over the years as the all-in-one digital life device will have to make defining choices regarding which function is core and needs to be treated with high quality and which can be seen as a gadget and thus be lower quality. Solutions around bluetooth stand-alone add-on devices will start appearing.

Note: pictured on top-left is a MEMS gyroscope – isn’t that kind of design amazing? Source