IoT developer focus: Consumer, Industrial, or Both?

In a previous DevRelate blog post, “Internet of Things and your Developer Relations Program“, I gave an overview and list of Internet of Things (IoT) companies that have developer relations programs. This blog post takes a look at companies involved in IoT for Consumer and Industrial applications (and sometimes for both).

Evans Data provides an Internet of Things vertical research service that focuses on developers working on projects for connected devices in IoT. Projects can be targeted for use in transportation, entertainment, home automation, smart cities, retail, manufacturing, and a wide array of industry segments. One of the key take-aways from the IoT research shows that 55% of developers primarily connect devices through the cloud. The combination of IoT research and developer demographics and firmographics allows us to also know what industries the developers work in and where they work. Looking at the industries we can derive whether the developers are working on IoT projects for internal and/or external use. We can also derive whether developers are working on IoT projects for consumer, industrial or both.

IoT for Consumer and Industrial

 

Does your Developer Relations Program support IoT for the Consumer, Industrial or both segments?

In my home, I use a Nest thermostat and my PC/Smartphone to monitor and control the temperature. A large warehouse would most likely use an industrial grade digital temperature control system. For monitoring of the warehouse temperature and humidity they would probably use a PC and/or Smartphone for monitoring and alerts. Nest does have a support article that discusses how Nest thermostats can be used by offices and small businesses.

I also have several personal medical monitoring devices including a pulse oximeter, weight scale, blood pressure cuff, blood sugar monitor and temperature sensor. Depending on healthcare industry specifications and regulations these IoT devices work well in my home but may not be applicable for use in a modern healthcare office or hospital. Some of my devices come with APIs and lower level BluetoothLE interfaces. Some of the devices provide and app to upload the data to a cloud storage system and an API for me to build apps to get at the data. Several developer programs, including Apple and Google, also provide frameworks to get to health related data.

Since I don’t have a wind farm in my backyard, I probably wouldn’t have a need for industrial IoT solution like GE’s digital wind farm technology. I do have a smart meter on my home’s power meter. My energy provider, PG&E, provides ways to access customer-authorized data via a REST based API. As a developer I could build desktop and mobile apps for monitoring and alerts for both my home and a wind farm.

Most individual developer programs provide sample source code for specific device apps. It is harder to find a “hero app” that brings together multiple devices, multiple services, cloud and data storage into a solution. Does your developer relations program provide APIs to integrate devices, services and data for IoT and IIoT based systems? Are the services, APIs and architectures similar or different for IoT and IIoT applications? Are the features for developer programs the same? Depending on the criticality, government regulations and other factors, there may be higher levels of security access, authentication, encryption, etc. involved for your developer programs and the product offerings.

Internet of ThingsIndustrial Internet of Things

Recent IoT and IIoT News and Blog Posts

 

Consumer and Industrial IoT Developer Programs

Here is a list of Consumer IoT and Industrial IoT hardware and software providers and consulting firms.

Consumer IoT

Industrial IoT

If You have a Developer Focused IoT and/or IIoT program, Let Me Know

I would love to explore your IoT and IIoT focused developer program. Send me an email with your developer program URL so that I can join and take a look.

David Intersimone “David I”
Vice President of Developer Communities
Evans Data Corporation
davidi@evansdata.com
Blog: https://www.devrelate.com/blog/
Skype: davidi99
Twitter: @davidi99

Internet of Things and your Developer Relations Program

The Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the hottest topics in developer and technology conversations. IoT companies with developer relations programs comprise a vast range of use cases, industries and devices. I’ve personally written code for the personal medical devices including pulse oximiters, blood pressure cuffs, heart rate chest straps and blood sugar monitors. Using code and components I’ve created demos and videos showing how to work with home control devices including Z-Wave based smart switches and door locks. It’s easy to create apps that control home lighting and heating. I’ve created demo applications for department stores using proximity beacons and beacon fencing. These development use cases are only a fraction of the use cases that can be included in the IoT developer space. IoT reaches way beyond what a consumer might experience with IoT. Your IoT developer relations program can help educate developers with sample code, tutorials, how to videos and more.

To look at the larger IoT development opportunities, we can see IoT devices already in use in manufacturing, transportation, retail, energy, financial services, healthcare, homes, buildings, logistics, cities and governments. There is a vast array of opportunities for developer relations programs to reach out to IoT developers. Predictions abound that there will be billions of devices and trillions of sensors connected to the Internet. Recent news stories about hackers taking control of devices points to the need for security skills for developers. Big data and analytics software will allow developers to harness the rapid growth in the number of connected devices and the data streams they will create.

IoT Developer Relations Programs

I should always answer this question with “who doesn’t have an IoT developer program”. We can quickly list the readily identifiable software, hardware, services and platform companies that are extending their reach to include IoT products. This group includes Intel, Cisco, Facebook, HP. Microsoft, Salesforce, Qualcomm, Oracle, Texas Instruments, Toshiba, Amazon, AMD, Samsung, Apple, SAP, Google, AT&T, IBM, Verizon, Huawei, Dell  and others. There is another group of companies, especially in the industrial and automation spaces that are adding IoT layers to their product and services offerings. In this group I include GE, Bosch, PG&E, ABB, Thingworx, Ericsson, Emerson, Siemens, Philips, Orbit, Cypress, Sierra Wireless, Schneider Electric, Rain Bird, Comcast, Honeywell and more. That said, here are links to a few of the thousands of companies that have active IoT developer relations and outreach programs.

 

Evans Data Internet of Things Vertical Research Service

The Internet of Things vertical research service focuses on developers working on projects for connected devices in the Internet of Things, whether they’re for transportation, home automation, smarter cities, retail, industry or any other type of interconnected application. The service provides year long data delivery with two global survey reports plus IoT focused data deliveries across disciplines like mobility, Big Data, and Cloud. You can view the table of contents and sample pages on the Internet of Things Vertical Research Service page. You can also use the Evans Data Analytics Console to look at Internet of Things developer research data.

IoT Developer Relations

If you have a developer focused IoT program, let me know

I would love to explore your IoT focused developer program. Send me an email with your IoT developer program URL so that I can join and take a look.

David Intersimone “David I”
Vice President of Developer Communities
Evans Data Corporation
davidi@evansdata.com
Blog: https://www.devrelate.com/blog/
Skype: davidi99
Twitter: @davidi99