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In the rush to hit the market with the latest and greatest technology, it’s tempting to cut corners in the product planning. But spending some time to take a strategic view is key to success.
It is easy to get a bit of tunnel vision when planning your IoT product strategy, and only focus on a single device. Taking a step back to consider the device together with a provident product range could give your company a decisive competitive advantage in the market.
IoT device challenges beyond connectivity
Integrating Internet connectivity into an embedded device is one challenge that must be addressed, but an even harder-to-solve challenge follows once the devices are deployed.
How do you manage and remotely monitor potentially millions of deployed devices? What about when security issues arise and getting critical updates out to users is vital?
Rapid iterative product release approach
We encourage a rapid iterative product release approach to ensure adaptability in product-market fit and fast time-to-market, but rushing a product without a provident strategy is a surefire way to guarantee failure in the long run.
> Read more: Develop IoT products with ease
Even if your product proves to be successful, what happens in two years’ time when your competitors have the edge, because they designed products that were easy to update, upgrade or replace?
Saving time now is a tempting proposition, but it will almost always cost you more in the long run. Taking a strategic view by leveraging investments and considering software scalability are key factors to help achieve permanent success.
Leverage your investment
The simplest way to leverage your investment is by considering your complete product range, and choosing a development partner that is capable of scaling across a range of products.
The Nordic Semiconductor nRF52 Series SoCs can be found in a diversity of products, from high performance wearables and secure payment devices to smart city sensor networks and industrial lighting systems.
Pursue a platform
Rather than choosing a single SoC, we recommend that you choose a platform that shares (or at least has overlapping) goals with your long-term product strategy.
SoCs evolve, but it’s the platform that will stay with you and grow with you as you release new products for years to come.
Much to consider
There’s much to consider when choosing a platform partner. Is there the capability to add features, or even to migrate away to a new platform should the need arise?
Some platforms work on a pay-as-you-go basis, which means the manufacturers make no or low initial capital investment, allowing even the smallest developers to build IoT-enabled products and services.
Consider the product lifetime
Not every customer is going to upgrade to the newest version of your product straight away, especially if the current version meets their needs. This means manufacturers can’t afford to ignore the potential future vulnerabilities of their connected devices.
> Read more: Firmware updates for smart technologies
IoT devices need over-the-air firmware and software updates, but that must be done quickly and securely. Vulnerabilities have to be patched in hours, not weeks, to deliver consistency and reliability to large fleets of connected devices.
Making it simple to deploy, update, and maintain code running on remote devices should be a key factor in the way your developers build, deploy, and manage software for IoT devices.
Scalability of software is a key cost concern
Probably the most expensive part of developing a connected product is in the software. Designing software in a way that makes it easy to reuse code in future products is essential. Software scalability should therefore become a key element in your product planning strategy.
