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Survey: 73 Percent of Americans Clueless About 'Internet of Things'

By Peter Bernstein June 17, 2014

According to a recent survey by cloud testing solutions provider SOASTA, despite all of the buzz around the term “Internet of Things” (IoT for short), most Americans have no idea what we in the industry are talking about. Plus, until there is a simple and reasonable explanation, they also are in the dark as to why they should get excited. However, not to fear; this was also the case with “cloud” not that long ago, until a well-done Microsoft commercial made it safe for the average American to sound like a geek.

It appears, based on the SOASTA results that we certainly are still climbing the vaunted Gartner hype curve with plenty of headroom for the continuation of the upward trajectory. This is good news as well as problematic. The reason is that it leaves the industry, which notoriously has had a singular inability to communicate its value to non-technical people, the opportunity to explain itself. This includes hopefully setting reasonable expectations to a time when IoT becomes a big blip on user radar screens, and they are not disappointed; that is, we won’t precipitously slip down the back side of the hype curve.

Room for Optimism about IoT

This first of what will be an annual, if not more frequent, exercise of looking at the state of IoT with consumers (as the headline at the top screams) found that nearly 73 percent of Americans admit to being unfamiliar with the Internet of Things —presented as technologies that connect “smart” devices and everyday electronic objects to themselves and the Internet to share information and drive new applications. In actuality, since the survey of 2,051 adults over 18 years of age was done for SOASTA by the respected Harris polling folks and conducted May 28-30 online, the picture could be worse. The reason is that respondents were digitally adept and willing to spend time answering a survey. Yet, even then it was surprising that only 6 percent said they were very familiar with IoT.

The more than a glimmer of hope is reflected in the finding that when the technology is explained, an overwhelming majority – 67 percent – said they are excited about the possibilities of IoT coming to consumer technology.

Here is some food for illumination from the survey. When provided with examples, consumers said that the most highly anticipated applications of Internet-enabled consumer technology include:

  • Cars – 39 percent
  • Smart home appliances – 34 percent
  • Heart monitors – 23 percent
  • Pet monitors (e.g., GPS tracker) – 22 percent
  • Fitness devices – 22 percent
  • Child monitors – 20 percent
  • Toys – 19 percent
  • Drones – 18 percent
  • Glasses – 15 percent
  • Clothes – 15 percent
  • Sports equipment – 9 percent

Many Americans (77 percent) think that IoT can improve any activity. Almost half of Americans (47 percent) say IoT would help them stay healthy, and 46 percent say it would help them save energy, for example by reducing their carbon footprint. Other answers included:

  • Working out – 31 percent
  • Work – 29 percent
  • School – 28 percent
  • Updating friends and colleagues – 17 percent
  • Babysitting – 16 percent
  • Religious services – 8 percent
  • Dating – 8 percent

On a rather light-hearted note, when asked which Sci-Fi story most accurately reflects the promise of the next wave of technology, including IoT and cloud computing, the respondents’ overwhelming favorite was Star Trek (12 percent), followed by The Jetsons (9 percent). Other top choices included:

  • Minority Report – 5 percent
  • 1984 – 5 percent
  • Her – 5 percent
  • Wall-E – 5 percent
  • Total Recall – 4 percent
  • X-Men – 3 percent
  • The Terminator – 3 percent
  • Star Wars – 3 percent
  • Blade Runner – 1 percent
  • Battlestar Galactica – 1 percent
  • 2001 – 1 percent

To be honest, I think that SOASTA’s characterization of Star Trek as an overwhelming favorite is a bit much. My pick would be The Jetsons. In fact, I have always believed (and written about) my own belief that the only two true technology visionaries of the last 100 years are William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, creators not only of The Jetsons but also The Flintstones. If you understand the differences in technology between the Space Age Jetsons and the Stone Age Flintstones, you get “IT.”

In this case the IT is a reference to the fact that since Bell and Marconi made distance communications something done over dedicated media (wired or wireless) instead of a sub-set of transportation, progress in communications can be judged by the ability of the media to accommodate more information that engages more of our sense more intimately. The incredible advances in how that information is displayed are interacted with on the devices we use. For those of us who grew up with one black and white TV, one black rotary dial phone (possibly with two lines), and no PCs or video recording capabilities, it is amazing how far we have come and how fast we are hurtling to the future. Hanna and Barbera were the first to point this out. It is why the made-for-TV movie, The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones, is “must see TV.”

It is worth noting what Tom Lounibos, CEO of SOASTA’s take on the survey was. He commented: “As our research shows, most Americans may be unfamiliar with the term ‘Internet of Things’ but they’re excited by the promise of the technology,” he said. “We’re already seeing that potential being realized by consumer technology companies with the advent of the smart home and the variety of connected fitness devices on the market today. We expect that IoT will accelerate the demand for innovation in the DevOps space. We’re already working with companies to test the strength of their IoT apps and sites to meet users’ high expectations.”

The one true cautionary finding in the survey was that once Google Glass was explained to respondents, despite their generally optimistic view about the value of IoT, they specifically were not enthusiastic about that technology.  My guess is that both the possibility of such tech being viewed (pardon the pun) as invasion of privacy, and the issues surrounding creation of a distracted lifestyle accounts for the lack of enthusiasm for Glass. That said, this by no means is a reflection of a lack of interest in the entire wearable tech area where again interest seems keen.

The message to the industry from the report is clear: Everyone who is working on “E”verything has a lot of explaining to do, and therein lies terrific opportunities.
 
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