More than 93,000 visitors descended upon the GSMA’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this month to gain perspective on the direction of the mobile industry. With attendance up by 9 percent from last year’s event, Mobile World Congress celebrated its 10th anniversary showcasing cutting-edge products and services that are having a profound impact on life and business. The GSMA has been working with wireless carriers and device makers to promote opportunities presented by mobile-to-mobile communications and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Today’s innovators are living at the intersection of mobile and design. Connecting a previously unconnected object is creating new experiences that were once only bound by one’s imagination. These new connected devices can take the shape of digital watches and other wearable tech, to home appliances and automobiles. To deliver on the benefits of connected devices and connected users, businesses must learn how to leverage IoT to create new ways to experience everyday items that now offer a way to share and gather data from users.
A major highlight of Mobile World Congress was the GSMA Innovation City, a space dedicated to connected devices found across the urban landscape. The Innovation City housed a café, a theatre, shops, trains, connected cars and a dental spa within its borders. Hundreds of devices and applications were on display to demonstrate the experience of a fully connected life.
For example, on display was a connected tennis racket. According to the GSMA, Rafael Nadal uses a motion sensor in his tennis racket that tracks where and how hard he hits the ball. Similarly, Oral B demoed a smart toothbrush that tracks how well a user brushes their teeth. A tennis racket and toothbrush with a connected life make-over are creating new opportunities for designers and application developers to rethink the customer experience.
What will be interesting to see is how designers and makers are able to leverage this trend to continue to innovate and create better connected devices. One example of a truly innovative product we saw during our SOLIDWORKS World 2015 was Thalmic Labs’ Myo armband – a gesture control device that allows you to control anything from software on your computer to a drone. This just goes to show that virtually anything is possible when developing an IoT connected device.
From design to manufacturing, Dassault Systemes is enabling the IoT movement. Whether it is empowering makers with 3D design tools to create or manufacturers the platforms for smarter home appliances and other products, as we discussed here, the result is often a renewed and improved customer experience.
Mobile connectivity is the catalyst generating new ways to experience things that were largely unchanged for a number of years. Every-day devices, from tennis rackets to home appliances to shipping containers, are evolving with the latest mobile technologies embedded in them. Connectivity, as we discussed here in December 2014, truly opens and expands possibilities.
According to Machina Research, there will be 27.1 billion total connected devices across the globe by 2020, more than double the 12.6 billion devices observed in December 2014. As designers and makers it is our job to continue to push the envelope to create new devices and tools and to continue to build on existing ones. So one question remains – what will you make next?
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