Internet of Things products rely on hardware sensors. These are little devices that monitor things like room temperature, heart rate, compass reading, etc. Sensors need to be cheap and plentiful. Low prices mean ultra-low profit margins.
So how do you make money in the sensor business?
- Only allow access from a front end you control, and charge for the front end.
- Don't bother trying, let suckers eat the tiny margin.
- Give away the sensor and own the data center and/or UI.
Those are the consensus as far as I can tell, anyway. But I don't know if I believe this is all you can do. So here are my contrarian answers:
- Sell a lot. Win by brute force.
- Raise prices. If your sensor is so valuable, why can't you charge for it?
Related anecdote: I recently had the AC go out and called a service company in our area. A service rep came by, took one look at the wall unit and said "Your need a new thermostat. $127".
I said "I'd like to replace it with something that I can control from my phone." He got rather irritated and said "Those cost over $500 and you need to get someone to program your router!". I mentioned that I had seen one on sale the other day at Lowes for $250 and that I would be comfortable with handling the router configuration.
Without another word, he stormed out of the house.
The next day, I found a Honeywell Smart Thermostat at Ace for under $150. Physical installation was easy due to color coded wires and simple instructions. It turns out that you only need to configure the router if you want to control the system from outside the network and need to open a port.
Some blue collar pros will do better than others.