Technology has evolved phenomenally in last 4 -5 years which has made internet available for most of the people. Telecom Companies like JIO has been pioneer in bringing India at this stage. Smartphone users in India are expected to become 330 million by end of 2018 and would reach 490 million by 2022.
But the question is “next is what?”. Bringing internet to everyone’s hand is not the end. What a common man uses a smart phone for is social media apps like #facebook, #youtube, #Linkedin, #twitter etc is still restricted to less than 10 % of actual users. Obvious fact is the power of technology is yet to be explored.
While technology has bridged the gap of communication at the same time there are some disadvantages as well. This has exposed common people’s data. But overall we can easily say that for a common man in India smart phone is a tool which enables the person to make calls, chat, watch videos, and use social media etc only. Additional tools like Amazon Alexa is now available which makes voice command possible. Also integration on biometric system in smart homes like fingerprint reader and face recognition which is now commonly available in smart phones as well.
The actual power of technology is not reached to common people for sure. There are lot of possibilities yet to be explored and to be made available to people. #IOT is the concept which is being heard from last 2-3 years. But hardly anyone has seen the actual implementation of IOT.
#IOT is used in many scenario’s like smart cities, smart energy and utilities, transportation and utilities etc. But for a common man #IOT usage is going to be smart home using smart devices. This technology is available for use but not yet affordable for common person. This technology can make people control there devices like television, refrigerator, Air Conditioner, CCTV, Fan, Light, Door lock etc.
But there is a dependency on seamless electricity supply and internet availability. Though India is declared as a completely electrified country still there are gaps. There are villages where just electric wire has reached. According to a report of “The Wire” in India still there are 31 million households without electricity. Also except for tier 1 and tier 2 cities electricity supply is not 24*7. Also in rural areas voltage fluctuation is a big problem.
If we talk about internet users in India there are approx 380 million internet users however home/fixed internet users are only approx 18 million which is way too low. For usage of #IOT fixed internet connection plays an important role.
Another challenge in #IOT usage is a robust system. Until the system is robust enough to be trusted and used cases are developed increase in #IOT usage will be a challenge.
Overall growth in usage of #IOT in home segment still seems to be a challenge. However the matter of the fact is disruption may make things change. #IOT is a disruptor. The moment cost of implementation comes down with enough no of robust system used cases it will come in a big way