Device Web Connection
What do IoT and smart home device makers need to know in order to connect their devices to the web.

Cees Links,
CEO,
GreenPeak Technologies

1. The Internet of Things and the Smart Home is not about pushing products (“things”) out of the door, but it is about reinventing products into services. Internet of Things business models are about recurring services and recurring revenue streams, not only about paying for a product at the check-out register.
   

2. Customers are buying solutions for problems, real or perceived. They are looking very specifically for things like “security”, “energy control”, “assisted living”, etc. And they want to be able to monitor and control these different solutions from the same place – a single dashboard. They don’t want to have to use a variety of different apps with different user interfaces (UI) to manage their homes and their family’s life.

Manufacturers and service providers need to work together – to bring all the different home equipment and services together under a single umbrella with a common UI – a single app (I.E. a Smart Home Butler) that lets the family members understand what is happening in their home and enables them to manage it, if not managing it for them.

The Smart Home is a wonderful concept, but concepts alone do not solve immediate customer needs. For example, no one is looking for a refrigerator that can talk with the toaster – but if these kinds of kitchen appliances can help make the home shopping task simpler, if the connected appliances can make it easier to schedule and prepare meals, then maybe this really is an effective solution that people are interested in. Device makers need to be very precise in what problem they are solving for their customer, and evolve away from simply marketing the “concept” of connected devices.

The end game is connected solutions that make our lives easier, safer and more efficient. Device makers and service providers need to look at the BIG picture, not just the components and the individual machines and devices.

About the Author

Cees Links, CEO and Founder of GreenPeak

Cees Links is the founder and CEO of GreenPeak. Under his responsibility, the first wireless LANs were developed, ultimately becoming household technology integrated into PCs and notebooks. He also pioneered the development of access points, home networking routers, and hotspot base-stations. He was involved in the establishment of the IEEE 802.11 standardization committee and the Wi-Fi Alliance. And, he was instrumental in establishing the IEEE 802.15 standardization committee to become the basis for the ZigBee sense and control networking.

GreenPeak Technologies is a fabless semiconductor company and is a leader in IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee silicon solutions for the Smart Home and the Internet of Things. GreenPeak is privately funded. It is headquartered in Utrecht, The Netherlands and has offices in the United States, Belgium, Japan, China, France, India and Korea. GreenPeak has won the prestigious 2014 Deloitte Fast50 Award and is recognized as a leader in developing new wireless technologies for consumer electronics and Smart Home applications, demonstrating rapid growth and adoption by major customers.

For more information, please visit www.greenpeak.com