What Are We Doing Wrong? Americans Don't Know the IoT Exists

I just read the results of a survey from SOASTA, a cloud and mobile testing leader. This was the first survey the company has ever done on the subject, and it was conducted online in the U.S. among 2,051 adults ages 18 and older.

The results seem to indicate that nearly three-quarters of Americans don’t know what in the hell the IoT is.

Seriously?

Hey IoT companies: talk to your marketing people. Hey IoT professional associations: isn’t this your job? Hey news organizations: whatcha think you’re doing? (Editor’s note: That last one was us. Oops. We’ll cut it in the final edit.)

Enough jokes, though. This is serious, especially when you look at the next result. Once the IoT was explained to the respondents, about 67 percent said they were excited about the possibilities for IoT in the consumer technology market. This means that if the message and education about the IoT gets into the public consciousness, the people will be very likely to buy.

And that’s good.

Only six percent of Americans said they were very familiar with IoT, but (again, once it was explained and they were given examples) they did say they were excited about a number of categories. Almost 40 percent said they wanted connected cars, 34 percent were interested in smart home appliances, and nearly a quarter of respondents liked the idea of health devices like heart monitors and fitness bands.

Here’s a fun fact, though: They asked people which science fiction story has the best potential for coming true, and the respondents’ favorite was Star Trek (12 percent), followed by The Jetsons (9 percent).

And, as much as I love both of those properties, that is the problem. Right now, folks think the IoT is fiction, and we need to show them that it is real. And not in the future.

The IoT is now. And we all need to get the word out. Join us at the IoT Evolution Expo and we’ll talk about how to do that.