What you need to know about IoT product development

Software is eating the world. It's a famous statement made by Marc Andreessen back in 2011 about the rise of software companies and how software will disrupt many, many industries. Today, as we live among devices that run on smart software, that statement couldn't be more true. We live surrounded by dozens of devices that are connected to each other, as the Internet of Things slowly spreads throughout our world. Each year, a batch of new smart devices are introduced to the market, hoping to find a place in our connected lives. 

Have you ever wondered though about how these smart devices are made? Are they a software project? Or are they actually a hardware project? What consideration do we need to think about when we're developing these products? With those questions in mind, let's take a further look into the product development of the Internet of Things.

Before we go on though, let's clarify the kind of product that we will be discussing. For this article, what counts as a product is a software or hardware project that was not made for personal use. The scale and complexity of the product doesn't really matter. It could be a simple connected camera network, it could be a brand new type of device that the world has never seen before, or it could be simply adding an analytical tool to a currently working device. 

Working with hardware is expensive 

Now that we have that cleared up, let's start with the first and most important thing you need to know about IoT product development: working with hardware is not only different from developing software, it's also more difficult and more expensive. In fact, the reason that so many startup companies are popping up these days, is because starting a software business is much cheaper than starting a hardware business. Before software was prevalent, it was much harder and costly to start a technology business. 

Unlike software, hardware isn't easy to change. Once you're set to manufacture a particular hardware, there's no changing the end result, even if there's a mistake with your initial design. And even if your design is flawless, there could still be a problem with the material you're working with or even with the manufacturer themselves. So, when working with hardware, you need to be extra careful, because a single mistake could end up being exceptionally costly. 

Fortunately, these days there are solutions that could alleviate those issues, like 3D printing. With 3D printing, we can cheaply produce our hardware design. That way, we can quickly evaluate the look and detect any issue with the hardware design without needing to go back and forth with the manufacturer. Do keep in mind that even with 3D printing, we still need to test our hardware with the actual, final material and manufacturing method. 

Requirements and functionality are important 

Another thing that you need to know about IoT product development is that you need to figure out the full requirement and functionality of your product very early on. Yes, when you're developing software, you also need to find out about the software requirement in the beginning, but it's a bit different with IoT, because it affects everything in the project. 

You see, with software development, your toolkit is meant to be general and capable of dealing with most problems. For example, if you want to build a web application, then most of the time, the framework and language that you choose will be able to build the application that you want. The development environment for IoT doesn't work that way however, it is much more specific. A certain toolkit for IoT is meant to solve problems with certain conditions. 

Coupled with the fact that IoT products have additional factors that need to be considered like power consumption, among others, choosing the right platform for the right project is a must. For example, if later in the project it was found out that you need more processing power than the one provided by your hardware platform, then you need to retool plenty of stuff. 

Consider UI

User interaction is another big thing you need to consider in IoT product development. A lot of devices don't have any screen or any complicated input method, so you need to figure out early how users will interact with your product. Should the user be able do any interaction right on the device? Or should the user interact with the device using their phones? Should the user be able to access the device remotely? These are all questions you need to answer before you can determine the component your product requires. 

Consider connectivity 

Speaking of remote access, connectivity is also another factor you will need to consider in IoT product development. While there are many ways for your product to connect to the Internet, you should also ask whether it makes sense for your product to have an Internet connection or not. Maybe your product will be placed in a spot where wireless connection doesn't reach. Maybe instead of via Internet, your product should be able to transfer its data and log whenever a storage device is connected with it. 

There are a lot of things that you need to consider when you are developing products for the Internet of Things. The topics we discussed should provide you with a good place to start. 

About the Author 

Raka Mahesa is a game developer at Chocoarts (http://chocoarts.com/), who is interested in digital technology in general. Outside of work hours, he likes to work on his own projects, with Corridoom VR being his latest released game. Raka also regularly tweets as @legacy99.