When it comes to innovation in the world of IoT, it is not the digital and technological giants that are innovating in leaps and bounds. It is startups that are leading IoT innovation.
On one end of the spectrum, you have the giants who are not bound by financial and other resource constraints. On the other end, you have startups who are constrained by finance, labour, and a wide range of other resources.
So, how is it possible that startups are pushing IoT innovations faster?
All Startups Don’t Make it
First, let’s throw out a misconception. All startups are not innovating. According to Harvard Business Review, as many as 75% of startups fail. The 25% that manage to survive, get many things right. From figuring out a management model, revenue generation model, to innovative solutions to acquire resources, successful startups have managed to figure all of this out.
Affordability
Rewind back a decade ago and it was quite expensive to produce any technological gadget. Today that is not so. Prototypes can easily be generated in anyone’s garage; and for mass production, one can look to South Asian countries like China and Taiwan. These are countries that already have an established electronics industry along with skilled labour.
This means IoT startups can get their devices manufactured for as little as $100. Startups do not have to hold back when developing prototypes or selling their product on the market.
A single Product
A startup does not have multiple projects. A startup dedicates every single resource to produce the best IoT innovation that it can, as fast as it can. It obsesses over the innovation to ensure that it fulfils all the needs of the user.
The Internet is Everywhere
Often IoT companies don’t want to create new devices and opt to integrate their IoT innovation with already existing devices. Smartphones and tablets ensure that people have access to the internet at all times. This allows startups to innovate better. Neura, an intuitive communication app, is only possible because of the smartphone, as all it needs is a smartphone to work.
Financial Market
Along with the affordability, take a look at the financial market. Scores of venture capitalists and investors are looking for the next big technology company and are willing to invest. At the same time, startups have more options to gain finance, and that includes crowdfunding. Chui, the intelligent doorbell, was possible through crowd funding.
More money, more resources, quicker innovation.
Stiff Giants
Why are technology giants not able to innovate fast enough? This is a question that has to be asked.
– Tech giants may have the resources, but often lack the drive because they are already focused on their existing products. Unlike the startup leadership that is completely focused on the IoT innovation, a tech giant’s leadership is focused on multiple things.
– The larger the organization, the more the red tape and this makes it extremely difficult for good ideas to see the light of day.
– Dependency on analytics and big data ensures that tech giants will never disrupt the market.
– They are obsessed with their grandeur and fail to look to the future. This is what exactly happened to Xerox. They created the first personal computer, but were entirely comfortable with selling Xerox machines, so much so that they didn’t see the possibilities and market that computers had.
Technology giants are not putting everything into IoT innovation and so aren’t innovating very fast. The smart ones like Google prefer acquiring an IoT startup to get on the platform.
Finally, IoT is a field that is still under development. The burst of smart technology and the internet in the last five years has opened up possibilities that IoT startups are aggressively tapping into, while technology giants are not.
