Ronak Patel

Ronak Patel is the Co-founder & CEO at Sunflower Lab. He’s an entrepreneur, thought leader, and a problem solver. With more than 17 years of experience in the IT industry, he’s made it to a point where he can be called as a generalist who can contribute and lead in any technical discipline. For years he has led the Sunflower team to thrive on the challenging – the seemingly impossible tasks.

Internet of Things (IoT) Predictions and Trends

The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the connectivity of physical objects which feature an IP address for internet connectivity, and able to collect and exchange data using embedded sensors.

Business Insider’s premium research service, forecast there will be 24 billion devices connected to the internet by 2020. traditional computing devices (e.g. smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, etc.) will comprise an additional 10 billion. Nearly $6 billion would be spent for IOT solution in next 5 years.

Hand holding a smartphone in a world of Internet of things (IoT)

How would Mobile Devices and Mobile Apps play a major role in a world of IoT?

Connectivity:

Smart Mobile phones can be connected to the internet using wifi and mobile network. Internet Connectivity is the first step for IoT which make reachability to other IoT devices possible.

Remote:

Mobile phones can be used as remote to control IoT devices. Mobile app for Remote car starter, managing thermostat, controlling lights/fans are day to day example where we use a mobile phone as a remote. An online researcher found that average mobile user keeps their phone close to them more than 22 hours a day. A mobile phone could be leveraged to act as IOT remote without changing any user habit.

Dashboard:

New generation of smart mobile phones have a display screen which can be used as a dashboard to view real-time information for IoT devices. Mobile app development platform can easily be built into the dashboard using visualization components like graphs, tables with a real-time data feed from sensors, and touchscreen interface.

Analytics and Data storage:

Mobile apps that analyze the data generated by IoT devices. Mobile phones come with adequate processing power which open possibilities for analytics apps. Small set data from IoT devices can be stored on mobile devices itself. Mobile phones can use cloud storage to store large set data.

Conclusion

We have already seen how augmented reality and virtual reality become game changer technology. Likewise, IoT also having a significant impact on the technology domain. More than 4.5 mobile apps have been built on various platforms so far. In coming years as more IoT devices come to market more mobile apps will be built to remotely manage those IoT devices. Dashboard apps and Analytical apps for IoT devices would make the mobile apps obvious choice in the world of IOT.