• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, April 26, 2016

As IoT products gain consumer acceptance, the new report from Argus Insights reveals that market conversations are heavily concentrated around Big Data concerns. The report, “State of the Internet of Things: What’s Leading Market Conversations,” illustrates that as IoT grows, so does the volume of data collected.

Over 2.3M social mentions that make up the Twitter discussion about IoT between January and April 10, says the report, form the basis for the analysis. Among IoT topics addressed in the social conversations, Big Data leads market mindshare, substantially ahead of general discussions of wearables, cloud, smart home, smart cities and more. However, Among IoT in general, it is security concerns that predominate, showing significantly more social mentions than privacy concerns.

John Feland, CEO, Argus Insights, says “… security concerns for consumers… on the rise and… goes double for any enterprise deployments… security issues continue… a real roadblock for IoT product acceptance… “

The Internet of Things (IoT) is growing in breadth and popularity, but the market is becoming more difficult to define as more ‘things’ gain the capacity to be connected to the Internet. The first definition to show up on a Google search of “what is IoT” defines IoT as an “… ever-growing network of physical objects that feature an IP address for internet connectivity, and the communication that occurs between these objects and other Internet-enabled devices and systems.”

In simple terms, says the report, the IoT is a group of objects with the potential to communicate with each other. This group of internet connected objects is expanding quickly as broadband internet is becoming more accessible in more places, and a dizzying array of wireless technologies is also improving to enable more devices to connect to the internet. Currently, the IoT includes everything from watches to coffee makers to cameras to thermostats to engines to stop lights to clothing to drills, and much more.

The Internet of Things is being leveraged to create smart systems. Among discussion of application areas of IoT, Big Data stands out as one of the most important factors. One of the biggest challenges is processing and interpreting collected data, recently made clear by interest in content that identifies and troubleshoots the intersection of Big Data and IoT.

The Internet of Things is exciting, says the report, as technology is developed to make the lives of humans easier. This has been true since the invention of the wheel allowed people to easily carry heavy loads over long distances. It has persisted as technology developed into what we use today, from the telegraph to the telephone to the smartphone to the smart…anything, But as nearly every ‘thing’ gains the power to collect and store data to communicate with other devices and humans, we are encountering issues with information overload.

In summary, the report notes that the Google-owned company, Nest, sees mindshare as people discuss their Smart Thermostats, Detectors, and Camera as part of the larger IoT. Amazon has seen an increase in mindshare in the IoT space since their Echo speaker turned hub entered the Smart Home scene as a viable controller. While there are several brands operating within the Internet of Things market discussion, talk of brands accounts for less than ten percent of overall IoT social discussion, suggesting that the market is actually more interested in how and where to apply the technology than which brands are actually doing it.

Concluding, the report says that the Internet of Things has the potential to greatly transform the world we live in, but companies must first find a way to effectively secure data collected from devices.

To gain access to the complete Argus report, please visit here.