The IoT Space is Consolidating (And Here's Why)
Companies like Amazon, Google, IBM, Hitachi Vantara and others have been making acquisitions for years now in order to get a leg up on the competition. As the encroaching 2020 date gathers hype and interest from the market, it becomes all the more necessary to feel prepared and to show others that they are taking IoT seriously. It certainly shows. In order to fill out their “menu” so to speak of technical abilities and systems integration, these large companies are getting more help from specialist groups within this newly formed IoT market. They are creating value through partnerships, integrators are piecing the solutions together, customers are increasing their offerings and everyone is happy.
A quick look at your favorite tech news-source or crunch-base will show you what current investments or acquisitions have been in play and what activity has resulted from this. Recent acquisitions provide an understanding of the overall market, strategies and the focus a company is taking at any point in time.
- Google acquiring the “Where is My Train” app (Parent Company - Sigmoid Labs).
- Amazon acquiring “Sqrrl” for bumping its cyber security.
- IBM acquiring Red Hat.
- Hitachi Vantara acquiring Reān Cloud.
These are just a few examples of the activities taking place within the last year, but it is not going to end there. Once the wave of early majority and late majority customers comes crashing in, there will be a need for larger companies to take the brunt of this and to reinforce themselves with skilled teams and capable employees.
AWS and Google cannot handle the entirety of the IoT market on their own, yes they are partnering with smaller service providers to create a better ecosystem, but the smarter play is to identify unique and innovative companies to help them grow into something worth acquiring.
The IoT market couldn’t maintain the initial 400 or so cloud analytics platforms, in that scenario there is no competitive advantages based on unique characteristics or offerings. This is why the success rate for IoT products and services in this space lower compared to other tech markets.
In any new innovative space there will be those who pioneer and those who ride the coat tails of thought leaders and tech giants. I believe that if you are a small provider and are able to succeed in this space, despite the competition you are viable to be an IoT leader. Even a leader in a very specific niche and geographic area is important to have in this "tech arena".
This is an important conversation to have and I welcome comments and input into where you think the space is heading.
The link below is the project I am currently working on with my team. IoT2cell is a mobility platform designed to help workers and employees in the field do their job more effectively and quickly by accessing IoT data with augmented information.
If you are interested in connecting with me in order to work on IoT related projects, you want custom mobile app development or anything else: Please contact me through my email at: [email protected]
