Apple Ushers in the IoT Era: Learning from the iPod

By Jim Lundy

Apple will announce its new devices later today and all eyes will be on their announcement, which will be held in Cupertino, where some of Apple’s historic announcements have been made. The iWatch is the big story everyone is waiting for, but months ago Apple tipped its cards with the preview of iOS 8 (see our blog about iOS 8).

Our take is that with their announcement later today is that Apple will usher in the IoT Era with its first wearable device.

IoT: Learning from the iPod

Apple has years of experience with small form factors, something many have overlooked. We had interns at Aragon this past summer and they studied wearables. One of the things we spent time talking about was Apple.

We looked at Apple’s devices, including the iPod. Clearly, the 13 years of experience with the iPod, is going to be leveraged into the new wearable device that Apple will be announcing today. IOT is about use cases and going all the way back to the introduction of the iPod—music was its key use case. Apple has learned from that and that is why it is well positioned for many new use cases for IoT.

IoT Era: Healthcare

Apple is cleverly tying in unique use cases and Healthcare will be one of the areas highlighted today. So while many will look at their new device as for consumers, tying in healthcare brings in an entire ecosystem. We expect to see many Healthcare providers, such as Mayo Clinic, onstage today. There will be many who will copy this approach—we expect some major innovation to be unveiled with the ‘iWatch’.

IoT Era: Apple HomeKit

Apple is rolling out HomeKit as part of iOS 8. Little has been shared other than what was in the iOS 8 preview. We do expect a number of partners, such as Honeywell to start offering new devices, based on the HomeKit API.

We expect more news today on HomeKit. One thing we will note about Apple. Despite issues with iCloud password protection, Apple is generally viewed as more secure than other OSes, such as Android. This becomes critical if you are going to do things, such as lock your house with your mobile device.

IoT Era: Cars and Apple CarPlay

Apple has quietly been extending its influence to cars. With Drones and Self-Driving Cars in the news (GM announced Self-Driving features for 2016), people have overlooked Apple’s moves. Apple now has 28 different Auto manufacturers committed to supporting CarPlay. The Connected Car is here and Apple is well positioned here.

EMM Gets a Boost

We think that this will boost demand for Enterprise Mobile Management (EMM) providers, such as AirWatch, Citrix, Good, IBM, MobileIron and many others. We’ll be live tweeting Apple’s event today. Stay tuned for that and more analysis. Developing.

There is more to IoT than Apple, but Apple is clearly setting the stage for a long term future where Apps and new devices will help people do more at home and increasingly at work. There is much more to come with the shift to the Internet of Things and Mobile. Stay tuned.