Kickstarter success transforms IoT sensor node market

8th August 2017

Kickstarter

Anna Flockett

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There is an increasing number and variety of IoT devices and forecasts are showing even faster growth in the coming years. Large and small companies are rushing to get their new embedded electronic products on the market. In product development, utilising open-source software projects has been standard procedure for a long time. However, it’s normal to keep the hardware design files secret. Companies with new product ideas must start from scratch instead of building on available technology.

To tackle this problem, designers have become aware of the advantages of open-source hardware platforms. By using these open platforms, companies are able to achieve significant cost savings, remove risks of vendor lock-ins and decrease time-to-market.

Enter Ruuvi Innovations; a company confident that it has created something that was missing in the market.

The Kickstarter product, RuuviTag where both hardware and software are open-source, is aimed to help companies and individuals around the world. Since its launch it has become one of the most wanted sensor devices on the Bluetooth beacon market.

Lauri Jämsä, CEO of Ruuvi Innovations said: “We have received interest from numerous companies who are looking for open-source IoT technology instead of closed systems. This has made us even more confident our [open-source] ideology is the way to go. Opening the sources isn’t a threat. It’s an opportunity.”

RuuviTag is a powerful sensor device which can be used as it is in various business cases. It's also possible to build completely new products on its proven technology and design.

The Ruuvi community, which was created to be a centre for sharing ideas, also brings the ultimate value for Ruuvi's customers. Projects, bug fixes and enhancements are usually freely traded ideas and information to be used by anyone as well as for commercial purposes. Moreover, professional help is always available.

Jämsä continued: “On RuuviLab, our new community portal, one can browse useful instructions on how to use RuuviTags in different ways to boost his/her business or ease everyday life.”

Ruuvi’s webstore was also launched in conjunction with RuuviLab to let everyone in on the fun.

He added: “After seeing how high the demand for the product has been, we’re excited to open sales to everyone.”

The opening sales in July 2017 resulted in the initial stock being sold out in less than 24 hours. Ruuvi is now increasing its production volume of their signature RuuviTags to fit the growing demand of the beacon market.

Looking forward, Ruuvi Innovations aims to continue pioneering bleeding edge technology to create cool unseen products.

“We’ve got ambitious plans. We’ve done loads of research on the energy harvesting field and our upcoming sensor product will be immortal. Battery-less operation will revolutionise large-scale mesh sensor networks.” Jämsä enthusiastically described