Chuck Martin is a New York Times business bestselling author and has been a leader in emerging digital technologies for more than two decades.
Considered to be one of the foremost experts on IoT, Chuck is a keynote speaker and has authored several books including Digital Transformation 3.0: The New Business -to-Consumer Connections of Internet of Things. Chuck also serves as the Editor of the MediaPost AI & IoT Daily, and hosts a podcast called “The Voices of the Internet of Things with Chuck Martin.” He is also the CEO of the Net Future Institute. We talk to Chuck about monetizing IoT, the impact of COVID-19 epidemic on IoT businesses, and a future with drones and robotics.
We hear the term “Internet of Things” and “IoT” a lot, but what is it really in a nutshell, and how is it impacting our lives every day?
If you look at the transformations we’ve been going through–internet and mobile–we basically made that connection portable. What’s happening with the internet of things is that it’s connecting things to other things digitally. In the internet and mobile revolutions, we used to initiate the activity such as a customer would start shopping, etc. But with IoT, the devices themselves actually start to communicate with each other, and then they communicate to an individual. So it’s a totally different thing. It’s bigger than the internet and mobile revolutions because it’s so transformative globally.
How are IoT companies thinking about monetizing this technology? Is it based on data or usage and consumption or subscriptions?
The financial models are changing. The technology is getting so sophisticated that it really costs a lot to make it. And the big change happening here is that companies are moving to a subscription model so customers don’t suffer from sticker shock. PTC is a great example. They do really incredible advanced virtual and augmented-reality for big industrial companies. A couple of years ago, PTC switched to a service model. They took a big hit initially (which they knew they would) but now they’re wildly successful. It’s a better model and gives customers an insurance of sorts, and locks providers into a longer-term approach.