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.
