In this article we will share 9 reasons for developing IoT devices: Quick validation of your idea, competitive advantage, potential for revenue, additional revenue streams, better customer experience, increased efficiency, scalability, new partnerships, and transformation of a specific industry.
If you are an entrepreneur, CEO, or startup, and you have great ideas for an IoT device, you probably are wondering if it’s worth investing a budget on the development of a product that might not work in the market. However, thanks to our experience in helping customers in the US, Canadá, Perú, among other countries, we have managed to identify the best reasons for building an IoT device.
1. Quick validation of your idea
If you start by properly identifying a good problem to solve in the market, then you have a great part of the task done. However, this won’t be enough if you don’t count on good IoT product development services.
If you hire a reliable company that can design and build IoT products without problems, you will surely be able to validate if your business idea will be worth building at a high scale.
Of course, you won’t start by producing hundreds of units of your IoT device, instead, you can start by agile hardware development to get a prototype in a short period of time.
The prototype will be the best way to quickly validate your idea before developing a full IoT device.
2. competitive advantage
The IoT device development process will allow you to obtain a product that can give you a competitive advantage over other businesses in the market. When it comes to developing IoT technologies, they can enable businesses to provide innovative solutions that meet the needs of their customers better than their competitors.
Something we have learned over the years is that there aren’t bad ideas, just products that have been poorly designed or developed.
3. Potential for revenue
Nowadays, one of the most popular markets for generating revenue is the Internet of Things (What is IoT), many companies and industries have identified the opportunity and have migrated their business models with the intention of manufacturing IoT products for the market.
Our recommendation here is to analyze all possible markets where you could participate, and identify if your IoT device is a good fit for it:
- Smart agriculture
- Smart homes
- E-health
- Smart energy
- Consumer electronics
- Industrial IoT
- Smart retail
We even can give you some application examples to get you inspired:
4. New revenue streams
Building an IoT device can provide businesses with new revenue streams. First, IoT devices can provide valuable data that can be sold to other businesses, enabling businesses to generate additional revenue streams.
Second, there is the chance to offer additional services that result from selling your IoT device in the market: memberships, VIP features that provide extra data to your loyal customers or to the ones that purchase your app.
You can analyze different companies or startups that are offering added value to their customers through their platforms. See our IoT business models article.
5. Better customer experience
People are getting used to automation, this means they will value products or devices that make tasks easier for them.
If by building IoT devices you provide a better experience to your customers, they will surely buy from you.
Another way is to keep a good track of your clients habits, and suggest upgrades or new services according to their needs (when they have granted you the permission to do that).
6. Increased efficiency
The Internet of Things can automate and streamline business processes, resulting in increased efficiency and reduced costs. By investing in the development of an IoT product, you as an entrepreneur can improve your business’ efficiency, which can lead to higher profits.
Also, think about the potential benefits your customers get from using high quality IoT devices, that is, they will appreciate improving energy efficiency at their homes.
7. Scalability
Nowadays it is easier to scale up a business in a short period of time than years before. If your business aims to develop IoT devices, and these devices have the potential to be purchased by thousands of customers, you will surely see an exponential growth of your company.
Thanks to technological advancements, it is easier to manufacture new technologies at a higher scale, which means you will be able to reach more markets in different countries.
8. New partnerships
Not only developing good IoT devices will help your business or project to be known. You may also attract new investors or partners that will align with your dream. If you want examples, there are hundreds of big companies who were a mere idea at the beginning, and thanks to networking or MVP validations (Prototype vs MVP), more people joined the projects, and now they are big companies in the market.
9. Transformation of a specific industry
In some markets, there is a before and after. Just a few years ago we were in an era where AI wasn’t the protagonist, and now, AI has exploded everywhere as a main topic of interest. This is because of the different applications that are offering AI as a solution for many automation tasks, and the integration of AI in traditional jobs (See AI and IoT).
Imagine how your Internet of Things product or hardware can impact the way people are usually doing a specific activity, or think about the data it could generate, or what people could do with it.
If you consider all these aspects, you may identify if building your IoT device will be an inflection point for the industry or market in the future.
Recommendations before and after developing IoT devices
Don’t take for granted the development process, in other words, pay attention to the product development life cycle. Every product, hardware, or even service has a life cycle that needs to be addressed. If you don’t plan ahead the future features or changes that need to be made, your business may stay behind its competitors.
This also means you need to invest on firmware, software, and product development. All three components are crucial for developing IoT devices that are successful.
A big concern people and companies are having has to do with privacy and security of their data. So, the recommendation here is to be sure your IoT product has the right protocols, configurations and necessary programming to protect it against hackers.
Hire an expert team like DeepSea Developments that has the capabilities to build IoT devices with the right methodologies, resources, knowledge, and certifications. Every time you think of a way you can satisfy the needs of your customers, be sure that you will give them a product that will be reliable, high-quality, and easy to use.
