Evolution not revolution

In 2003 there were just over 500 million connected devices in the world, representing a mere 0.08 devices per person. By 2010 this number had shot up to 12.5 billion connected devices, equivalent to almost six gadgets for every single individual with access to the Internet. This trend shows no signs of stopping either: by the end of this decade, analysts expect the number of connected devices on the planet to exceed 50 billion.

Prompted by this drastic increase, the element14 Community of engineers were interested to explore the attitudes of the general public towards connected technology. What’s more, our global survey of 3,500 consumers aimed to unearth both current and future expectations of trends like IoT and wearables, in order to inform the engineering community on where they should focus their attentions if their designs for the next generation of connected devices are to meet consumer demand.

Survey respondents from across the globe, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, France, China and India unanimously named healthcare as the top priority for technological focus. Almost 70% of consumers continue to believe that med tech can play a crucial role in saving lives – from developing new diagnostic equipment, to providing patients with chronic diseases the tools they need to live independently. However, the respondents still expressed reservations over what med tech technology they would be happy to adopt – particularly in Europe and where it concerned children, where concerns over privacy remain. Their anxiety is best reflected in the low number of respondents who would be willing to adopt smart plaster technologies, which would be able to read and relay their child’s temperature.

Renewable energy turned out to be the dark horse of our findings. With 66% of the respondents arguing it should be a main focus for technological development, this sector was seen as more important than others like education and agriculture. Consumers strongly support technological innovators’ efforts in making renewable energy more affordable and thus available to the masses, as opposed to the present where renewable energy remains accessible to only a limited number of the world’s population. The welcoming attitude towards renewable energy and protecting the environment is also demonstrated by the general willingness to adopt electric cars: over half of respondents want them to become a ‘mainstream’ purchase in 2015.

But, despite the huge media noise around the topic, we found that IoT is no longer quite as popular and glamorous as some may have hoped it would be. Instead of wanting IoT to produce revolutionary new devices, the core drivers behind consumer demand are those solutions that improve existing day to day tasks. The respondents showed a clear fascination for the functional – some might say mundane – applications of IoT, including smart burglar alarms or automatic car engine maintenance. Our study suggests that while people want to live in a connected world, it’s not the more revolutionary developments that aim to completely overhaul our daily lives, as some have promised with radical approaches to household appliances, that are of interest. Instead, consumers strongly support the engineering community’s efforts to create technologies that solve pre-existing problems, including medical issues and renewable energy. People simply expect technology to deliver as promised: improving their everyday life.