While a lot is written about the connected home and the Internet of Things (IoT), this year’s CONNECTIONS event in San Francisco was able to make the future with these technologies less theoretical and much more real. This was my third time to the conference hosted by Parks Associates and the momentum of the technology and the business models around them is really starting to coalesce.

The Theme of 2016

Past years have focused a great deal on security and interoperability. This year, the majority of conversations focused on challenges associated with consumer adoption and retention. Many discussions revolved around the increasing return rate for IoT devices, primarily due to lack of help with first-use experience, and the consumers’ inability to get connected devices to effectively communicate with each other.

Three (of many) Ongoing Conversations

1. Industry pundits are talking about improving the ease of use and adoption (voice enabled devices like Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant are a hot topic).
2. There is a lot of ongoing and innovative thought around how the connected home will impact retail, services and marketing.
3. A surprisingly large turnout of insurance companies indicates increasing interest from this market in the Internet of Things, more precisely, on how to increase adoption of devices and sensors, to help protect homes thereby reducing claims.

‘Fast’ and ‘Easy’ are the two words epitomizing the notion and intent of the Internet of Things.

Connections this year clearly showed that to fully realize the potential of IoT, everything from shopping, through implementation or installation, to servicing will need to be more user-friendly than ever.

For now, we need to continue to work towards removing adoption challenges and concerns to make the connected device market not only desirable, but also accessible to the majority. I really look forward to seeing how far we have advanced when I return to CONNECTIONS 2017!