Arm Releases IoT Predictions for 2019

The end of the year brings predictions galore, and Arm has jumped on this bandwagon with its view on what it thinks will happen in the internet of things (IoT) in 2019. It also carried out a consumer survey to find out what end users think about IoT, machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), and 5G.

Here are Arm's IoT predictions:

1. Intelligent home goes mainstream. There’ll be more availability of IoT home products available to consumers from mainstream household brands, expanding past leading consumer brands and whitegoods to encompass mainstream lighting, irrigation, heating/cooling, and other household names — bringing increased automation and efficiency to everyday tasks.

2. Personalized delivery. Delivery options will start to see increasing flexibility. The combination of smartphones with GPS positioning data and the increased deployment of low-cost sensors to provide visibility and tracking of assets could allow delivery to customers anywhere, not just at specified hardcoded locations like a home or office.

3. Better health-care service. Deployment of sensors and better connectivity in hospitals will mean that hospital personnel will have real-time visibility into the location of their equipment and orders, bringing a better quality of service to patients and reducing the time to find critical medical equipment.

4. Smart cities look to improve revenue streams and citizen engagement. Drivers for smart cities will mature from just cost reductions (e.g., LED lights or better waste management) to better citizen engagement and more revenue streams (e.g., red-light violation detection, Wi-Fi hotspot, 5G services, smart towers, crime detection/analysis, information broadcast) with the help of advanced technologies like computer vision and ML.

5. Smart buildings use more tech for efficiencies. Smart buildings will increasingly move toward space optimization, object detection for safety/security, wayfinding, and asset tracking with the help of advanced technologies like locationing, computer vision, and ML.

In addition to the predictions, an Arm-sponsored global survey of 2,000 consumers (by research firm Northstar) found the following consumer insight on their perspectives on 2018 technology trends and 2019 consumer expectations.

1. The last 12 months have seen a general increase in technology adoption. A global average of 66% of the respondents claimed that technology had become “more a part of my life” in 2018, and only 3% said that it was “less important” than a year ago.

2. The rapidly rising quantity and quality of smart technology products is likely to drive a credit card spree this holiday. More than half of the respondents (54%) expect to spend more on tech-based gifts. Almost one in five (18%) said that they would spend “a lot more than last year,” and 36% are looking to spend “a bit more.”

3. The public also foresees AI spreading rapidly in the next 12 months. Ninety-two percent of the respondents expect AI to be more widespread than it is currently.

4. The main reason to “love” (26%) or “like” (37%) smart technology in cities is “convenience.” Twenty percent of the respondents appreciate what it is doing for their city experience. Many (15%) also cited “quality of life,” with one in 10 (11%) stating that they feel that a smart technology upgrade is the “modern/progressive” thing to do.

5. Opinion is split over whether companies are taking improvements in data security and privacy seriously. Though less than 10% feel that companies are making no effort at all, the majority (70%) of respondents want to see this effort increase in the future.