• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, December 22, 2015

For most of the current year, we have dealt with the continuing evolution of The Internet of Things, with all of its marketing and consumer ramifications.

For the future, much of what we focused on was research from various and leading research sources.

Some of the studies we wrote about here were massive in scope, often encompassing large, worldwide samples.

But since we’re nearing the year end, there are many (and I mean many) predictions of what will happen next year that have been sent to me over the last several weeks.

These are not necessarily based on new research, but rather are the viewpoints of a person or organization self-perceived to be in a position to make some educated guesses.

I’ve aggregated some of these predictions to give you at least an IoT snapshot of what some see in store for the next year.

So here are IoT-related predictions for 2016, in no particular order, with the source of each prediction at the end.

• Data-driven local ad sales become the new normal. (BIA/Kelsey)
• Beacon technology will be implemented across nearly all retail, CPG and entertainment segments, basically anywhere there are goods being purchased, where loyalty can be rewarded and where the local experience can be augmented via mobile engagement. (Mobiquity Networks)
• Suppliers of all kinds will tout platforms and many users will scratch their heads, since there are so many different platforms, which will get more confusing before sorting itself out. (ARC Advisory Group)
• The fashion industry will lead the way into bringing wearables more prevalently into our day-to-day lives. (Ambarish Mitra, Blippar)
• The gap between data collection and data analysis merge into a real-time feedback loop, providing more immediate, personalized customer experiences driven by more efficiently run businesses and precisely targeted marketing. (Merijn te Booij, Genesys)
• Encryption technology will become the norm. (Keeper Security) 
• R&D will become the heroes of the organization. (Zach Supalla, Particle)
• In-store, the use of beacons will expand beyond deals and offers to include efforts to improve customer service and loyalty. (Mobiquity Networks)
• Mobile payments and beacons face a moment of truth. (BIA/Kelsey)
• Beacon technology will be used as much for counting, identifying and segmenting audiences as for pushing mobile ad campaigns. (Mobiquity Networks)
• Drone-related security threats will grow. (Kasey Cross, A10 Networks)
• Hackers will get more creative and breach IoT devices. (Keeper Security)
• Businesses will stop chasing the colorful rainbows of interesting IoT use cases and instead narrow down to business cases that deliver results. (Sudip Singh, Infosys)
• The Internet of Things expands the attack surface and enterprises become more vulnerable than ever before, as wearables or smart home objects can be used as a starting point to penetrate networks. (Richard Greene, Seculert)
• Facial recognition apps will start to enter the consumer space much more aggressively, resulting in new legislation to protect the use of biometric data. (Ambarish Mitra, Blippar)
• The increased use of sensors across various industries leads to a tsunami of data driving massive developments in big data. (Frost & Sullivan)
• Smart machines like drones, driverless vehicles and robots will disrupt the marketplace. (Frost & Sullivan)
• Instead of a waterfall approach to innovation, companies will test multiple technologies and options to arrive at a faster time to market by testing and proving or disproving a product/vendor very quickly. (Tal Nathanel, MyCheck)
• Consumer robots become a reality. (Juniper Research)
• Data will finally be used intelligently. (Omaid Hiwaizi , Blippar)

As you can see, the predictions for what’s ahead on the IoT Road are wide ranging.

It won’t be that long to see which end up proving true.