Mobile World Live – Blog: Is it time to take consumer IoT seriously?
Bengt Nordstrom, CEO of analyst company Northstream, told MWL other operators would be carefully monitoring the success of Vodafone’s model.
He added a mixture of improvements in battery life, networks and consumer awareness of new technology meant the time could be right for a serious consumer IoT push from many of the world’s largest operators.
“Until now we’ve not had the right device or module performance to do things like this,” he said: “Technically it has been possible for some time, but [the problem has] been about the price point and battery life of devices. It’s coming because we can now meet the technical requirements.”
“Overall the [wireless] industry is at a stage where it is showing every sign of being a mature industry, it’s not growing any longer so every operator on earth has their business development teams working on new revenue opportunities. IoT is one of those key areas, so consumer IoT wrapping like this one will be very interesting to follow.”
