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One In Five Developers Now Works On IoT Projects
dcblogs writes Evans Data Corp., which provides research and intelligence for the software development industry, said that of the estimated 19 million developers worldwide, 19% are now doing IoT-related work. A year ago, the first year IoT-specific data was collected, that figure was 17%. But when developers were asked whether they plan to work in IoT development over the next year, 44% of the respondents said they are planning to do so, said Michael Rasalan, director of research at Evans.
I think I was the dork who invented the term. I said it accidentally to my boss who repeated it to sever of his bosses. Then they started using it at M2M conferences....
It is just remote sampling of data. Pumping it thru some wireless service. Then acting on it at the server level in some way.
Thats it.
They got *very* excited one day when I added in remote control of stuff. I had to as that was the only way to get some controller to cough up its data. They then started speculating on webs of things and 'Internets of things' all talking to each other.
They started making the remote ends 'smart' and talking to each other. When they are missing the whole point that they should be stupid sensors hovering up as much data as you can and let the backend server take care of it.
They ended up with 500-1500 dollar controllers and projects that never end. One dude took my whole set of code and rewrote it. Not because it needed it. But because it didnt exactly match his style guide. Even though I had one. It didnt match his. 2 years later he had the exact same thing as I did with no new features and no customers (they got bored and found someone else to do the remote sensing). That group could have owned large segments of the market (they were 2 years ahead of everyone). Now they have nothing as everyone caught up very quickly.
Your toaster may be internet-enabled now, but my teapot has been internet-enabled for years. It even has its own HTTP status code (418)!
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
I call shenanigans.
There is no way that 20% of all developers are doing IoT, unless you define IoT to include all mobile app development or any device that has the ability to talk over any kind of comms channel (eg local bluetooth connection from device to diagnostic tool or a wireless keyboard for a tablet etc).
You don't need a minicomputer to call 911. You don't need a minicomputer to text your wife that you're running late. You might be surprised what a smartphone is useful for though.
I've had a smartphone for about six months now, and before that I didn't really think I needed one. Now I know I don't need one, and right now I don't even have cell service, but I have found a number of uses for it anyway. I've used mine as a flashlight, a level, as a compass, and to check my pulse. They make you wish you had a real camera, thus fueling the economy, and they will do in a pinch if you need photographic evidence of something. It makes a great guitar or instrument tuner. It will translate text on a billboard. It saves paper for grocery lists. And there are about a half million things that any networked, powerful computing device would be useful for: games, alarm clock, programming, et cetera.
However, I think I have an even better example. I came home for the holidays to Valdez, Alaska in 2011. As undoubtedly nobody knows, Valdez is by far the snowiest city in America with about 325 inches (8.25 m) of snow in a given year. That year was an extraordinary year for snow. By late January 350 inches lay on the ground, and this in a place where snow showers in May were not unheard of. Boats sank. Buildings collapsed. Everyone who could was shoveling. After the second time I cleared our roof the snow pile reached the second-story windows on every side of the house. This became a slight problem at about the same time when the heating fuel started to get low — the (chest-high) fill pipe for the house was now buried three times its height in snow. You'd think that these sort of permanent-house-features would be easier to find in this sort of situation. I spent about three days digging for the damn thing, but then remembered something a friend had mentioned: the magnetometers in smartphones can be used as metal detectors. I tromped in, borrowed my mom's cell, and found the pipe almost immediately. I'd come within a few inches of it, but then been digging in the wrong direction. It wasn't exactly a life or death situation, but it was pretty dire, and it was pretty much the only tool available that could have helped in that situation.
I get your point that smartphones enable some people to be rather conspicuously vapid, but I'm not sure that they wouldn't be just as irritating with some other toy. I do think it's wrong to disdain the tool because of the users. I'm glad you don't need one. I'm glad I had one when I needed it. I'm pretty okay with having one now, even if I don't use it much. Most especially I'm glad that my mom doesn't live in a place that gets thirty feet of snow in a year. However, if you do happen to visit that terrible place, I highly suggest you bring a smartphone. You never know when it might come in handy.
Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.