Internet of Things: Opportunities for Apple, Startups, and More

“The future isn’t coming, The Internet of Things (IoT) is already here," says entrepreneur and futurist Jason Hope. "We’re no longer just accessing the Internet with our smartphones. Devices are now communicating with the manufacturer, consumer and/or other connected devices. This is opening up new and exciting possibilities in health care, retail and more.”

In five years, it’s plausible to say that if a device is not embedded with electronics, software, sensors or some kind of connectivity then it will be obsolete. It will look like standard definition television in 2015.

This is the year that the mobile payment industry will start to gain mass acceptance. With Apple in the market and Google making a strong play, we'll see more and more innovation in and around that industry. It’s crazy that a physical credit cards or cash are how we still pay for things when there are easier, more efficient options available.

The recent Apple Watch announcement has very little to do with the watch itself. “The Apple Watch is less about selling more iPhones or even conquering wearables. It’s more about establishing Apple’s IoT ecosystem,”said Hope. “Apple wants to be in your car, your doctor’s office and in your wallet.”

Tim Cook was ecstatic when he announced that Apple’s CarPlay has been adopted by every major automaker, integrating iOS with the automobile. Seven years ago, every automaker courted Apple to exclusively integrate with them but they declined. They looked at the big picture and created one centralized system.

Healthcare may have the most IoT potential. Researchers anticipate a $117 billion market for the Internet of Things in healthcare by 2020.

Devices already exist but it will take time to coordinate everything. “Most health trackers, for instance, monitor only a few specific activities, and many of them aren’t optimized to analyze the data collected in the most useful way. Different devices also use different means of talking to the Internet and to each other, so data collection isn’t broadly organized under one centralized system,”said Hope.

It’s an exciting time. IoT innovation is occurring rapidly but all of that could stop or be significantly slowed if net neutrality is not addressed. “U.S. technology is driven by start-ups. It's a bottom up industry that requires that access to tools be made as widely available as possible,” said Hope.

Apple is already working on creating a centralized system for healthcare.

But how quickly will society adapt to these technological advances? And which companies will get their new tech to market most effectively? Time will tell . . .