IMPORTANCE OF INTERNET OF THINGS

1. Smart home

Smart Home clearly stands out, ranking as highest Internet of Things application on all measured
channels. More than 60,000 people currently search for the term “Smart Home” each month. This
is not a surprise. The IoT Analytics company database for Smart Home includes 256 companies
and startups. More companies are active in smart home than any other application in the field of
IoT. The total amount of funding for Smart Home startups currently exceeds $2.5bn. This list
includes prominent startup names such as Nest or AlertMe as well as a number of multinational
corporations like Philips, Haier, or Belkin.

2. Wearables

Wearables remains a hot topic too. As consumers await the release of Apple’s new smart watch in
April 2015, there are plenty of other wearable innovations to be excited about: like the Sony Smart
B Trainer, the Myo gesture control, or LookSee bracelet. Of all the IoT startups, wearables maker
Jawbone is probably the one with the biggest funding to date. It stands at more than half a billion
dollars!

3. Smart City

Smart city spans a wide variety of use cases, from traffic management to water distribution, to
waste management, urban security and environmental monitoring. Its popularity is fueled by the
fact that many Smart City solutions promise to alleviate real pains of people living in cities these
days. IoT solutions in the area of Smart City solve traffic congestion problems, reduce noise and
pollution and help make cities safer.

4. Smart grids

Smart grids is a special one. A future smart grid promises to use information about the behaviors
of electricity suppliers and consumers in an automated fashion to improve the efficiency,
reliability, and economics of electricity. 41,000 monthly Google searches highlights the concept’s
popularity. However, the lack of tweets (Just 100 per month) shows that people don’t have much
to say about it.

5. Industrial internet

The industrial internet is also one of the special Internet of Things applications. While many
market researches such as Gartner or Cisco see the industrial internet as the IoT concept with the
highest overall potential, its popularity currently doesn’t reach the masses like smart home or
wearables do. The industrial internet however has a lot going for it. The industrial internet gets the
biggest push of people on Twitter (~1,700 tweets per month) compared to other non-consumer-
oriented IoT concepts.

6. Connected car
The connected car is coming up slowly. Owing to the fact that the development cycles in the
automotive industry typically take 2-4 years, we haven’t seen much buzz around the connected car
yet. But it seems we are getting there. Most large auto makers as well as some brave startups are
working on connected car solutions. And if the BMWs and Fords of this world don’t present the
next generation internet connected car soon, other well-known giants will: Google, Microsoft, and
Apple have all announced connected car platforms.

7. Connected Health (Digital health/Telehealth/Telemedicine)

Connected health remains the sleeping giant of the Internet of Things applications. The concept of
a connected health care system and smart medical devices bears enormous potential (see our
analysis of market segments), not just for companies also for the well-being of people in general.
Yet, Connected Health has not reached the masses yet. Prominent use cases and large-scale
startup successes are still to be seen. Might 2015 bring the breakthrough?

8. Smart retail

Proximity-based advertising as a subset of smart retail is starting to take off. But the popularity
ranking shows that it is still a niche segment. One LinkedIn post per month is nothing compared to
430 for smart home.

9. Smart supply chain

Supply chains have been getting smarter for some years already. Solutions for tracking goods
while they are on the road, or getting suppliers to exchange inventory information have been on the
market for years. So while it is perfectly logic that the topic will get a new push with the Internet of
Things, it seems that so far its popularity remains limited.

10. Smart farming

Smart farming is an often overlooked business-case for the internet of Things because it does not
really fit into the well-known categories such as health, mobility, or industrial. However, due to the
remoteness of farming operations and the large number of livestock that could be monitored the
Internet of Things could revolutionize the way farmers work. But this idea has not yet reached
large-scale attention. Nevertheless, one of the Internet of Things applications that should not be
underestimated. Smart farming will become the important application field in the predominantly
agricultural-product exporting count

Challenges in Internet of Things

 All the applications of this technology culminate in increased comfort, convenience, and better
management, thereby improving the quality of life, but as it is rightly said that a coin has two sides.
Similarly, it also has some challenges.

A. Compatibility

As the devices from a different manufacturer are used to be interconnected, the issue of
compatibility of tagging and monitoring is increased. Although this challenge can be solved if all the
manufacturer agrees to a common standard and an international standard is set up for the
equipment to be used. Today, we have Bluetooth-enabled devices and compatibility problems exist
even in this technology! Compatibility issues may result in people buying appliances from a certain
manufacturer, leading to its monopoly in the market.

B. Complexity
IoT is a combination of diverse devices and complex network. There are a lot of chances of failure
with a complex system. Any failure or bug in software or hardware will have a serious consequence.
For example, a bug in printer ink ordering system may order multiple ink tank for the printer due to
the bug or hardware failure.

C. Lesser Employment of Menial Staff[3]

The unskilled workers and helpers may end up losing their jobs in the effect of automation of daily
activities. This can lead to unemployment issues in the society. This is a problem with the advent of
any technology and can be overcome with education

D. Technology Takes Control of Life

Our lives will be increasingly controlled by technology and will be dependent on it. The younger
generation is already addicted to technology for every little thing. We have to decide how much of
our daily lives are we willing to mechanize and be controlled by technology.
E. Privacy
IoT has involvement of multiple devices and technologies and multiple companies will be
monitoring it. Since lot of data related to the context will be transmitted by the smart sensors, there
is a high risk of losing private data.
F. Security
Security is a crucial issue on the Internet, and it is probably the most significant challenge for the IoT.
When you increase the number of connected devices, the number of opportunities to exploit
vulnerabilities through poorly designed devices can expose user‟s data to theft, especially when the
data streams are left with inadequate protection. In certain cases, it may even harm the safety and
health of people. The Zika virus is not the only threat out there! There are a number of IoT
deployments that also have collections of nearly identical or identical devices. This magnifies the
impact of any one security vulnerability by the number of devices that all have similar
characteristics. To deal with all these unique challenges, there is a need for a collaborative approach
to security. A lot of users are ultimately going to have to compare the cost against the security,
which is related to the mass scale deployment of the Internet of Things devices.