The Internet of Things (iot) platform is a market worth paying attention to, playing a "bridge" role in the iot value chain. However, there are problems with Internet of Things (iot) connections, and the market is highly fragmented. IOTOS builds a middleware platform, solves problems by subtraction, and showcases the unique advantages of enterprises.
The Internet of Things platform is indeed a market worth paying attention to.
According to industry analysis data, the overall value chain of the Internet of Things (iot) consists of four major parts: terminals, networks, platforms, and application services. It is estimated that the value ratio distribution among them is 30:10:20:40. This means that in the rapidly growing iot market in the future, the value of network connections will be the lowest, while that of application services will be the highest.
To achieve this leap from low value to high value, it is necessary to attach importance to the platform that plays the role of a "bridge" in the middle.
However, in actual operation, unlike the high degree of standardization in the smartphone and PC industries, the protocol types and application subsystem interfaces of Internet of Things (iot) devices are diverse. This makes countless enterprises planning to operate platform products have to consider:
How can equipment access and subsystem integration be achieved efficiently, at low cost and with low threshold? How to barrier-free mine the deep value of enterprise production and operation data?
In the face of opportunities and challenges, a large number of companies specializing in iot platforms have emerged in the market. Even in non-platform links such as sensing, communication, application, and terminal, many enterprises have extended their products or services to iot platforms, penetrating into scenarios such as smart homes, smart buildings, smart parks, and smart manufacturing.
For this reason, the reporter of Internet of Things Media specially interviewed Li Ruqiang, the founder of IOTOS Intelligent Technology (Shenzhen) Co., LTD. Based on the experience accumulated by the founding team in smart parks, intelligent manufacturing and other fields over the past decade, and centering on IOTOS 'novel positioning of striving to build an "Internet of Things middleware platform", it led to the enterprise's in-depth understanding of the "Internet of Things platform"...
Internet of Things (iot) connectivity remains a problem
Xiaomi's Q3 2021 financial report disclosed that the number of connected devices on its AIoT platform (excluding smartphones, tablets and laptops) exceeded 400 million for the first time, and the monthly active users of Xiaoai reached 105 million.
According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as of the end of August 2021, there were over 100 industrial Internet platforms with certain industry and regional influence, and the total number of connected industrial devices reached 76 million (sets).
Whether it is consumer-grade or industrial-grade, device access is the first fundamental step. The recent rapid growth in device connection data seems to have given the outside world a false impression: "Isn't it already very easy to access iot devices?"
Li Ruqiang holds a different view on this point. He stated that "access" can be understood as two levels:
The first is the communication level, which includes the well-known network connections such as 5G, LPWAN, Bluetooth, WiFi, and ZigBee. This layer is indeed constantly evolving and maturing.
Secondly, at the data level, there are still significant difficulties in practice, which are mainly reflected in the standardization of device protocols and the integration and interconnection of subsystems.
Further speaking, at present, many alliance organizations are continuously promoting the standardization of device protocols, and we can see the achievements step by step. However, there is no such thing as forced standardization of subsystem interfaces.
This is because most Internet of Things (iot) projects are not the ideal way to directly connect things. Instead, there are already many old third-party systems, and iot platforms inevitably have to interface with numerous subsystems. If we want customers to abandon the old ones and build a completely new platform, it means a great deal of determination, cost and time investment.
In this way, the narrow sense of "connection", which refers to the networking function of devices, does have a very low threshold. However, if we consider forming a complete Internet of Things system that is interconnected and interoperable, so that "connection" does not cause problems such as numerous subsystems and data silos, there is still a long way to go.
Subtraction: Showcase the parts that players are best at
Compared with the rapid replication capabilities of smart phones and applications in the mobile Internet era, the demands for Internet of Things (iot) devices and applications have never had clear boundaries over the years. This has exacerbated the fragmentation of the iot market and made it difficult for projects to be implemented on a large scale.
In addition, as the demands of future projects gradually accumulate, the system may need to be re-encapsulated layer by layer. To cope with these dynamic development processes, iot projects must make subtractions.
Subtraction means doing encapsulation in advance, forming a unified outlet after completing local processing, and then integrating it externally.
Take the enterprise positioning of IOTOS as an example. It means not to rush to solve all the problems in the process of difficult implementation of the Internet of Things, but to accumulate past experience to form a tool for solving problems - the Internet of Things middleware platform. It focuses on solving the problem of "subsystem access and integration", and based on this, provides tool-based expansion capabilities and an open development system.
The core capability of IOTOS lies in its ability to adapt to the interface protocols of subsystems of multiple brands and models of equipment more quickly and break down data silos. It is mainly targeted at system integration projects of various buildings, parks, transportation, factories, etc.
Compared with the Internet of Things (iot) platform, the iot middleware platform of Aitousi features "small but exquisite" characteristics, and is more inclined to be integrated, without engaging in obvious competition with other types of platform products on the market.
When people treat a business as a project, there is certainly a profit margin. However, at the same time, its replication ability is very weak because during this process, customers will put forward a series of customized demands based on their own attributes.
Only when enterprises develop a set of products that can be replicated quickly or when solutions for customers in different fields only generate relatively low "editing" costs can iot solutions be promoted and implemented more rapidly.
Decouple: Expand the tools to a wider range of industries
For any platform software product, the most typical feature is the scale effect, which means that even if the initial development cost is high, as the user base expands, the marginal cost will become lower and lower.
The "Internet of Things Middleware Platform" launched by IOTOS can be understood as a software tool focusing on "subsystem access and integration as well as application standardization". Although it currently mainly focuses on the industrial sector due to market reasons, in essence, this product has extensive application capabilities and strong scalability in both downward access and upward application.
This is precisely the currently popular concept of "decoupling".
Essentially, when considering many issues such as device access and data analysis in any two different Internet of Things application scenarios, common parts will always be found. These parts should be directly reused without having to be built from scratch.
Therefore, when enterprises expect to have a tool-based product that "has both a core and an extension", breaking down the product and service into a fine-grained and loosely coupled state is more conducive to promoting business expansion into other application fields.
Pay attention to the small and medium-sized enterprises scattered in the market
Unlike the almost monopolistic situation in the Internet industry, many traditional industry sectors have extremely fragmented production capacity, with the market share of leading companies even less than 1%. This means that the market concentration is not strong and there are a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises.
Most of these enterprises are quite sensitive to project costs and cycles, but their demands still exist. Even if the demands are simpler and more primary, they still occupy a large part of the overall market size. Therefore, it is necessary for some platform players to look up to the stars and create benchmark cases for serving leading companies. There should also be a portion of players who pay attention to these often overlooked small and medium-sized enterprises.
In terms of target customers, IOTOS mainly provides products and services to small and medium-sized enterprises in the back-end B-end that are engaged in equipment and facilities and solutions, addressing their actual needs. To some extent, it does not often have direct contact with project operators.
IoT Universal Procurement Engine Box: In hardware form, it is mainly targeted at data application providers (such as digital twins, AI, BIM, GIS, industry applications, etc.), supplementing their deficiencies in iot gateway capabilities. Compared with the gateways on the market that address the access of a certain part of data collection, the Tongcai Engine provides a full set access, solving the problem of cumbersome access for various types of devices, especially subsystems.
Iot middleware platform: Software form, supporting device providers to supplement the deficiencies of upper-layer software capabilities for them.
In some large industrial parks and city-level cooperative projects, all the above-mentioned software and hardware products can be integrated to provide module support. In more smaller and more specialized scenarios, it can also provide support for customers, including flexible deployment methods and the ownership of intellectual property rights.
Ecological co-construction: Cooperation outweighs competition
In IDC's summary, the Internet of Things (iot) platform is a commercial software product that offers a rich combination of functions, mainly reflected in: being responsible for the connection and management of iot devices; Be responsible for the access, intake and storage of Internet of Things data. Visualization and analysis of data; As a tool for the development and integration of Internet of Things applications.
Founded at the end of 2017, IOTOS Company does more meticulous things than the broad concept of an Internet of Things platform, which is the "access and integration of subsystems" repeatedly mentioned above. Its aim is to lower the development threshold for customers by providing standardized products and ultimately complete digital transformation and upgrading.
The necessity of integrating subsystems is self-evident. However, the actual demands raised by customers are far more complex than a simple tool-based technology or product. This determines that the Aitousi Internet of Things middleware platform is more suitable for integration rather than insisting on a single and independent approach.
Just as Li Ruqiang replied in the interview: "Aitousi is establishing extensive cooperation with universities." The threshold for the Internet of Things middleware platform has been lowered to a level where students on campus can use and develop it. Moreover, it only takes less than three days for them to go from being unfamiliar with the product to being proficient in integrating devices and systems."
Frankly speaking, the Internet of Things (iot) is not a field with a fast output cycle. However, in recent years, it has attracted more and more attention from governments, institutions, and leading enterprises, and has achieved steady progress in results. The reasons for this are not only due to policy encouragement and low technical barriers, but more importantly, it aligns with the characteristics of the digital economy and digital transformation era. The pie brought by the interconnection of all things is too imaginative...
At this point, no matter how many players flood into the industry and no matter how many will become competitors of each other, the most important thing remains for enterprises to accurately identify a market with demand and firmly grasp their own unique positioning.
Among all the industries, there can be many enterprises that can do this well, and we have long-term expectations for them.