The Internet of Things Won’t Take Off Until These 3 Things Happen

Featured article by Rob Vandenberg, President and CEO of Lingotek

If your smartphone can’t read your mind yet, it will soon. Innovators and early adopters are sprinting towards the dream of a connected world, connecting everything from cars to toasters. Their exuberance is contagious. Some 10 billion devices are connected to the internet today; that number is expected to increase 10-fold by 2050. Investors are on board wanting to get in early on what is projected to be a $7.1 trillion market in less than a decade.

If the Internet of Things (IoT) seems to be everywhere right now—if not in your house, at least in the media—it’s because hype has reached the Peak of Inflated Expectations, according to Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies. The downside of this is that Gartner’s next phase is the Trough of Disillusionment, at which point the technologies actually climb into being productive.

What will the journey to productivity entail? What are the ingredients for a functional, rather than a conceptual IOT? Addressing these three things will get us all up and running in a connected world.

1. Interoperability

Before the Internet of Things takes off, all of the things in it will have to work together on one layer. It will be similar to what happened to the remote control. Coffee tables used to be filled with remotes, one for the television, the VCR, the cable box, the stereo. The universal remote did away with the confusion and clutter. It unified the control of each device in a single interface, just like the IOT will do, with your phone or tablet as the hub.

This so-called “god platform” will be the most general layer of the system, akin to what a cellular network is to cell phones. It will allow authentication, communication, and the addition of new devices. While this sounds simple in theory, several things stand in the way. For example, will the connected thermostat you buy today work with the light switches, refrigerator or car you buy in the future? Developers haven’t yet agreed on the architecture of the IOT. Some suggest taking a step back and starting from a decentralized, load-sharing blueprint that would allow for sharing processor cycles between devices and lessen the chance of failure in the chain.

Many companies are already addressing on these problems and others, laying the groundwork for an interoperable future. Most of the current forays into the IoT world involve tying everything together with smartphones, such as the work going on at the Thread Group and Thingsquare. Tying the new world of the IoT into a familiar interface will go a long way toward encouraging users to adopt these new connected devices.

2. A Trustworthy User Experience

The U.S. will be a large early market for IOT technologies like smart homes and connected cars. Eventually, the IOT will touch the entire world. That means creating user experiences that engage people around the world from their wrists to their laundry. How does a brand build trust simultaneously in 25 countries? Localized content will be more important than ever for companies that want a piece of the IOT market.

From language to cultural considerations, users feel more in tune with content that speaks to them directly. According to Common Sense Advisory, it takes 48 languages to reach 98% of online users. 75% of internet users only make important purchasing decisions when a product is described in a language they speak. Companies that want to compete will either have to hire a corps of translators or adopt services that integrate with their CMS and allow for automated translation.

3. A Reason to Engage

The IOT might make perfect sense for innovators and early adopters, but regular consumers need to engage without having to ask why. News stories about sports stadiums adding content to live games with Google Glass, and smart homes adjusting for optimal heating and cooling, will spark general interest. Once consumers have seen enough examples of how the IOT will simplify their lives, they’ll start to buy. The drive to move the IoT from novel to necessary is already underway, but it has yet to reach that tipping point where popular engagement makes it or breaks it.

The Day Will Come

In the next few years, your smartphone might tell your house to warm up when you’re stuck in traffic 30 minutes away. Your TV will know that you prefer to watch Animal Planet after a long day, and have the latest episode ready for you once your dinner is ready. This all will happen in Spanish, your home language of choice.

Even if you hate Animal Planet and bike to work, the bottom line is the same: the objects around you will be animated by the IOT. Once that happens, you’ll know that the future has truly arrived.

Rob Vandenberg, President and CEO of Lingotek | The Translation Network

As President and CEO of Lingotek, Rob is driving the vision of a company that is looking to change the future of translation.

Prior to being named president of Lingotek in 2008, Vandenberg served as its Vice President of Sales and Marketing where he was a source of guidance and inspiration. Prior to Lingotek, Rob headed up several successful ventures. He was co-founder and CEO of LocalVoice.com, which was acquired by HarrisConnect in 2005. He was named Vice President of Sales and Marketing for HarrisConnect after the acquisition. Before his work with LocalVoice.com and HarrisConnect, he was one of the first 20 U.S. employees at INTERSHOP Communications, where he helped build its worldwide clientele as a top-performing Sales Executive. The INTERSHOP initial public offering was one of the most successful enterprise IPOs in US history boasting a $10B market cap.

Rob holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Economics from UC Berkeley.