When it comes to forecasting for the future, experts are often in no doubt as to where tomorrow’s network will go. The future will go through the so-called internet of things . According to a Gartner prediction, by 2020 there will be 26,000 million connected smart devices, that is, forming part of the Internet of Things. And according to IDC, the Internet of Things will go from moving 1.9 trillion (Spanish, trillion American) in 2013 to 7.1 in 2020 in solutions for its management.
In other words, the future is already more or less here and it looks like it will grow – and a lot – in the coming years.
But what exactly is the internet of things? In science fiction movies of the past, houses were filled with smart devices that could do many things for their inhabitants. There New-Zealand Mobile Database were doors and windows that opened and closed on their own when they should, lights that modified their behavior, and robots that anticipated the wishes of humans. Nowadays, and given what the internet of things supposes and will suppose, those prophecies of the cinema of the past are more charming than correct. What things will be able to do will go beyond that.
In the internet of things, all devices, all objects and all products will be connected to the network and will have a layer of intelligence. They will be from the refrigerator to the shoes with which we go out every day to walk through our pillboxes or our ovens. We can already see, touch and even use many of these layers of intelligence. We already have sneaks that tell us when and how we should water our plants (called Parrot Flower Power) or thermostats (from Nest) that control our house so that the conditions are the best.
The opportunities of the internet of things
But the future does not stop there. The potential of what the Internet of Things can offer the consumer is very high. There will be toothbrushes to alert us when we wash badly or when we have to go to the dentist. There will be refrigerators that will make the shopping list for us and others that will let us know when things are getting bad. There will be ovens so refined that they will learn the exact temperature to make our favorite dishes the way we like them. There will be devices that learn from our sleep patterns and help us correct them. There will, in short, everything you can imagine.
The internet of things is still in its infancy, although the boom in smart cities, connected infrastructures and increased awareness of a connected culture, according to IDC, will make it explode in the coming years. “It’s important to remember that while the Internet of Things market is still in its infancy, there is a wealth of autonomous things connected to the web,” said Carrie MacGillivray, vice president at IDC. The “omnipresence of wireless connection” and “ubiquitous internet access regardless of location” will drive the growth of the internet of things between now and 2020. 
For brands, the Internet of Things is a very important opportunity to create a relationship with consumers and to retain their consumption. All these products, in reality, will be intervening in our behavior patterns and in our shopping habits. Our refrigerator will simplify our routines in the kitchen and make us buy what she tells us.? leading to where she is connected. Brands will have to strive to be imaginative, seductive, to be on the other side of those smart devices offering the answers that consumers need.
Companies must therefore make the most of technology to optimize their results. “Successful sales and marketing efforts will be based on understanding the most lucrative verticals that offer growth today and future potential and then creating solutions for specific cases,” Scott Tiazkun, senior analyst at IDC, explained in a recent report.
Internet of things and big data
But in addition to directing consumption, the internet of things will allow us to know consumers much better. The influx of data derived from having everything connected will make profiling customers easier and more complete. Smart refrigerators, toothbrushes and egg cups will add even more information to that infinite wealth of knowledge that has been dubbed big data.
“The development of the Internet of Things Brother Cell Phone List is going to generate enormous amounts of data that will need to be processed and analyzed in real time,” said Fabrizio Biscotti, director of research at Gartner. Having to process large amounts of data in real time will pose a problem for companies’ IT departments, which will have to invest in improving their data centers, in security and in tools that improve their analytical capabilities.
For marketing departments, however, it will be a new kind of information heaven. All this flow will allow us to know what customers want (in a more real way) and above all to anticipate their needs. It will not be necessary to wait for them to go to the supermarket, for example, to encourage them to buy butter.
