Cloud Platform Provider Offers Tips for Launching Consumer IoT Products

Choosing hardware before choosing an IoT cloud “is like buying building materials before understanding the building codes,” said an Ayla Networks white paper on pitfalls when launching an IoT product. “You risk starting over again; adding significant costs and delays to your project.” It said that before heading to market, companies need to know how customers will use a connected product, what value it will provide and what types of customers will value it enough to pay for it. Connectivity requires “significantly more testing and refinement” than a discrete version, said Ayala, promoting its platform that it said can shave three to six months off time to market for a single-device IoT product. Without proper planning, companies risk going over budget and missing promised market windows, which can damage competitiveness, reputation, and credibility, it said. Companies bringing their first IoT product to market should aim for the basics and not over-engineer, said the cloud platform company. By focusing on key features that drive value, the product has the best chance to succeed, it said. “Your connected product will take longer to build than you could possibly envision,” it said, so it's important to simplify, identify a real use case and solve it, with ease of use at the forefront. Ayla recommends three months of field testing, with four or more months for more complex IoT solutions. That provides time to uncover bugs, security holes and poor handoffs along the device-to-cloud-to-mobile-app timeline and to fix them before launch. Don’t foist “buggy” products onto customers, it said.