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SEPTEMBER 2016 PRO INSTALLER
PRO NEWS
www.proinstaller.co.uk
HUGE POTENTIAL IN ‘THE
INTERNET OF THINGS’
Technology has transformed our
world. Field trades companies
aren’t exempt from the impact and
you only have to look at electrical
and gas installations from 30 years
ago to see this. The latest change
coming down the track goes under
the name of Connected Homes and
Internet of Things (IoT). Benjamin
Dyer of Powered Now takes a
look at what these terms mean.
When new technology
hits a market it creates
a tremendous number
of new oppor-tunities.
The arrival of mobiles
made billionaires of
people like Charles
Dunstone from Carphone Warehouse
and John Caudwell of
Phones4U.
But timing is everything.
Ten years after the first
mobile was launched in the
UK, penetration was 7%.
Ten more years on and this
had risen to 100% as more
people had two mobiles
than had none.
Most of us don’t have the
opportunity to be billionaires but we may make a
decent crust if we get our
timing right. The latest
opportunity for installers
is the ‘connected home’ or
‘Internet of Things’.
MORE POWER,
LESS COST
The reduced cost of computing devices has driven
the electronic revolution
over the last few years,
whether that’s the arrival
of the iPhone or smart
thermostats. It’s this same
trend.
The cost of Bluetooth or
WiFi connected devices is
now so low that it is now
eco-nomic to connect just
about anything electrical
to the internet. The reason
that this is called the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) is based
on the idea that ‘things’
(actually, anything) can now
be connected this way.
WHAT IS IMPACTED?
Most of us are probably
familiar with products such
as Hive, or NEST, a Google
owned venture doing something similar. These products allow a smartphone,
tablet or PC to control the
water and central heating
system through a ‘smart’
connected thermostat.
But there is much more
potential and all of the
following exist, even if they
aren’t yet widespread:
• Doorbells – users can see
and speak to doorstep
callers on their smartphone from anywhere.
• Security Systems - can
arm themselves and
lock the doors when the
smartphone leaves the
home. CCTV videos are
now in the cloud and
acces-sible from anywhere.
• Gas, water and electricity meters - automatically
send readings to a supplier, and alarm, and sends
instructions to cut off the
water if it detects a leak.
• Lighting – can be automated.
The scope for connectivity is huge - this is only
scratching the surface.
MAKE YOUR MIND UP
WHO ARE THE
LEADERS?
A huge amount of money
is being poured into the
‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) led
by the technology behemoths from the west coast
of America. For that read
Apple, Google and Amazon.
The Amazon Echo (not
yet available in UK) was
released in the USA in 2015
and has already become
a best seller. This sits in
your home and listens all
of the time. It responds to
voice commands such as
‘Play me A Rush of Blood
to the Head by Coldplay’ or
‘Turn up the heating in the
kitchen.’
Google recently announced Google Home that
will compete with Echo
and Apple are also in this
market with their HomeKit
approved appliances.
The challenge for incumbents like Honeywell is that
these new guys are essentially software experts, and
it’s software that will dominate this new world. Kodak
was put out of business by
the digital camera and the
smartphone despite the
fact that they invented the
technology.
Every new technology
wave creates new business
opportunities. Becoming
expert in one or more of the
new capabilities has many
attractive features, including
the fact that the early adopters are likely to be richer
and less price conscious.
The problem is getting the
timing right and not committing everything unless
there is firm evi-dence that
demand is picking up. However, my advice is, the time
is now.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Benjamin Dyer is CEO
and co-founder of Powered Now. Powered Now’s
mobile app aims to take
the pain out of paperwork
for installers including gas
engineers, electricians and
other trades.
www.powerednow.com