Study: Latest 'Internet of Things' developments could spark 'hardware renaissance'

ABI Research estimates that the number of developers involved in Internet of Things (IoT) activities will reach 1.7 million globally by the end of 2014. The size of the ecosystem is forecasted to surpass 3 million developers in 2019. For comparison, this would by then account for approximately 10% of all software developers, notes the firm.

ABI's principal analyst Aapo Markkanen explains, “Currently, the IoT activity is largely polarized between hobbyists and makers at one end, and enterprise-level developers at the other end. But owing to a combination of various enablers, we can also see a growing number of startups taking the commercial plunge and starting to productize the concepts they’ve prototyped earlier with Arduino or Raspberry Pi. That productization, however, can be an extremely difficult feat to pull off, requiring very diverse skill sets.”

According to a new study from ABI Research, the core enablers for productization comprise purpose-built cloud platforms and development kits, which are making the IoT accessible to developers who may differ greatly in terms of their resources and commitment. Recently launched development kits, such as Intel’s Galileo and relayr’s WunderBar, may prove significant IoT enablers.

Further, there are also several other, more indirect enablers that will be critical for the IoT’s evolution, says ABI. These include sensors and sensor engines, affordable 3D printers, as well as crowdfunding platforms. Collectively, all these building blocks could eventually translate into a perfect storm of hardware innovation for the technology, speculates the analyst.

ABI practice director Dan Shey comments, “After all the talk about hardware being irreversibly commoditized and software ‘eating the world’ we may be actually soon witnessing a countertrend in the technology industry, driven by the consumer IoT. Consumers will shun away from anything that is not inspiringly designed and robustly produced, so any consumer-facing IoT play needs to deliver on both of those fronts if it’s to have any traction. In this sense, the IoT could represent the beginning of a hardware renaissance.”

These findings as well as developer segmentation taxonomy maps showing positioning of prominent IoT hardware and software suppliers are included in ABI Research’s “IoT Developer Ecosystem” study, which is part of the firm’s Internet of Everything Research Service. Learn more.

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