The Internet of Things (IoT) may sound like the next great area of innovation to drive consumer convenience and capability – until the details sink in. Do we really want big companies dictating how we control our appliances, while collecting data about our behavior to sell us more stuff? And do we truly crave refrigerators that order milk or cars that make their own service appointments? Sometimes it seems the hype around the IoT exceeds consumers’ desire for the technology – not to mention the headaches that come along for the ride.
Not all IoT vendors, however, are flogging products offering questionable value propositions that run contrary to consumer preferences. “When we launch a product, we observe deeply to understand how people are using it, what are they using it for, and how they tweak it to suit their own needs,” explains Ohad Zeira, Director of Product Management for WeMo at Belkin International. “Conversations with consumers are changing how marketing and product development works.”
Belkin International, Inc., is a Playa Vista, California-based manufacturer of consumer electronics. They specialize in networking and other connectivity devices, primarily for consumers and small businesses. While they’re perhaps best known for their networking gear, their popular WeMo® home automation line has given them an onramp to the IoT.
Home automation in some form has been around for years, giving consumers the ability to control when lights and appliances turn on and off. WeMo, however, presents a new opportunity, “the most approachable entry point into the connected home,” as Zeira explains the strategy.
WeMo’s essential realization was that customers aren’t demanding sophisticated connected home capabilities. “People don’t feel disconnected from their home and then go and get a connected home,” Zeira says. Instead, WeMo is starting small. “We want to be there with the solution for a specific problem that really annoys a user, and build from there.”
In other words, WeMo has resisted the urge to push its customers to build connected homes with their technology. Instead, they let customers set the pace. “We don’t want to be premature,” Zeira points out. “Observe first,” and then build out capabilities “based on consumer usage and sentiment.”
Read the entire article at http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbloomberg/2014/12/04/key-to-internet-of-things-consumer-empowerment/.
Ohad Zeira will be speaking on “Investing in the Internet of Everything” at the Internet of Things Summit in San Francisco on December 10 – 11.
Intellyx advises companies on their digital transformation initiatives and helps vendors communicate their agility stories. As of the time of writing, none of the organizations mentioned in this article are Intellyx customers. Image credit: Quinn Dombrowski.
