We hear a lot about how the Internet of Things (IoT) is going to create new industries and new economies. But, how?
How does the IoT — connecting sensors and conveying data from these through the Internet — contribute to new opportunities for growth and increased sales for an IoT-related business. How does the IoT spawn entirely new industries that, in turn, impact and alter regional and even global economies?
“Smart” or strategic partnerships around the IoT are popping up at a rapid pace and are bringing new solutions to market faster than ever before.
Take a look at the new venture between home builder D.R. Horton and home automation company Alarm.com. Each new home built by D.R. Horton is being equipped with Alarm.com’s suite of smart home technology. This includes a 7-inch HD touchscreen panel, smart locks, lights, thermostats, voice control and doorbell camera. An app on the homeowner’s smartphone controls everything from video to access to temperature control.
For Alarm.com and its white-label service providers, the opportunities are enormous and long-term. They’ll work alongside D.R. Horton’s subcontractors to configure smart technology up-front during the building of the home, but the benefits continue well beyond the sale’s closing. Monthly services and support for the embedded technology will extend for years, as will opportunities along the way for installing additional smart devices and new innovations as these emerge.
Top consulting and marketing intelligence firm and IoT Futurists Advisory Board member, James Brehm of James Brehm & Associates (JBA), puts this into perspective for us. D.R. Horton builds approximately 58,000 new homes each year. This means they’ll be installing 58,000 new alarms annually. JBA calculates that this will contribute about $23 million in hardware revenue to the US economy in 2019 alone. On top of that, monthly services revenues are expected to come in at $2.8 million. Just imagine the number of new jobs this venture will create. The economic impacts from this single partnership are astounding.
For more analysis about smart partnerships like this one, check out JBA’s quarterly newsletter, A Connected Conversation,and the company’s in-depth report, A Deeper Connected Conversation. You’ll get a comprehensive round-up of the latest trends, market activity, financials and performance analyses of today’s most relevant companies working in IoT.
