How IoT is Transforming and adding values in Solutions for OEMs in the Consumer Electronics Industry

The global market of consumer electronics in IoT is estimated to reach up to USD 124 Billion by 2023 at a CAGR of 24.16%.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has taken consumer electronics to another level and it is likely to bring the next wave of tech innovations. Consumer electronics is one of the keys to access the Internet of Things. smartphone availability to every consumer made the IoT in consumer electronics booming. Consumer electronic devices use Bluetooth, Z-wave, Zigbee, etc to connect with IoT gateway whereas IoT gateway can be used to connect with the cloud.

Let’s understand how IoT is redefining the boundaries of Connected Consumer Electronics Devices for OEMs:

IoT in consumer electronics explored new revenue sources by providing service on top of the products like Fitness trackers with a subscription to fitness program service, Smart vehicles with live location sharing to friends or family, vehicle health monitoring system, vehicle alerts, and notifications. Smart TV or Smart TV Stick that converts non-smart TV to smart TV   has opened the revenue sources for over-the-top media services.

Manufacturers get the consumer’s behavioral data and provide services that make the consumer life effortless. Nowadays, Amazon, Ayla, and other cloud services providers offer their cloud-connected agents to be run on devices to reduce the time to market. They are offering many more features than just remote control like scheduling, OTA, and others. 

IoT has transformed the consumer electronics market with the way consumers interact with the product, and manufacturers analyze the customer’s behavior to improve the products and services for their customers. Let us see some of the benefits of smart consumer devices in different categories for consumers and manufacturers. 

• Improve Product Quality: In any form, the consumer continuously interacts with the IoT device, which generates data on the basis of customer behavior and manufacturers analyze this data to improve their product quality. For example, IoT devices connect to home Wi-Fi routers using the mobile application. The mobile application asks the consumer about the experience of using that feature and even report the failures, which can help the manufacturer focus on that feature and fix issues with the same version if possible with OTA or in the next version of the product where there is a hardware dependency.

• The way manufacturers can get feedback on the features which can help to improve the existing features or add new features and eventually improving the overall quality of the product. IoT is helping the manufacturers in an immense way to speed up in improving the overall product quality.

• Personalized Experience:  IoT devices push the data to the cloud and it extensively helps companies to understand the consumer’s behavior and predict the individual’s needs, so companies can provide a solution that matters to the consumer. This will allow companies to offer customized solutions instead of generic solutions for all consumers like companies that can provide different fitness plans based on the need and, Netflix or amazon prime subscription based on the number of users. Personalizing products doesn’t just help in increasing the sale of the product but they also gain your consumer satisfaction which again turns into recommendations. 

• Consumer Convenience: IoT allows consumers to provide important information such as manufactured date, nutrition information of scanned edible products on their device without any hassle of checking those products explicitly. Users can easily find out which product has not expired or less nutrition based on that data to live a healthy life without manual efforts. IoT made consumer life more effortless. For example, consumers can get the list of items from the smart refrigerator to keep the continuous tracking of items in terms of the expiry date and nutrition. It helps the user in preparing the shopping list as the data/food items available in the smart refrigerator from anywhere using a smartphone.

• Remote Device Monitoring: Consumers will be able to control electronics products remotely without being physically present, which was impossible before the IoT was introduced. Now consumers can power on the air conditioner when they are on the way home and find the house cool when they arrive. Consumers can even see the status of appliances from a remote location and power it off remotely if not needed which saves the electricity bill. Consumers can even provide access to the house without being physically present, which is now possible using smart locks.

• Rapid Feature Updates using OTA: Time to market is most important for any manufacturer. IoT made it immensely easy to collect data for new features by user interaction with IoT devices and industries can develop those features faster based on user experiences without explicitly surveyed which could be way more time-consuming. For example, electronic devices with OTA support allow the manufacturer to put the device in the market with basic functionality and marketing with a promise of eye-catching features through OTA later once the feature is matured. This way, consumers can get the new feature from time-to-time using OTA.

The consumer electronics market is constantly changing, which comes with new challenges for the manufacturer in designing, developing, and manufacturing. Below is the list of the significant challenges faced by manufacturers:

• Managing multiple vendors for design and development of mobile, cloud, firmware, hardware and streamlining manufacturing 
• Time-to-market to be relevant in the competitive market 
• Making sure product safety certification and compliance with international safety regulatory