The saturated smartphone market is leading to phone makers intensifying their Internet of things (IOT) and Internet of everything (IOE) strategies in SA, to diversify their product offerings and open up new revenue streams.
This was the word from industry pundits, noting that phone original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are looking to transform their businesses and gain a competitive edge by taking advantage of opportunities in the local IOT and IOE space.
The highly-competitive smartphone market has seen phone companies increasingly developing intelligence-fused IOT devices and solutions beyond smartphones, designed for easy integration into their ecosystems.
Samsung, Oppo, Xiamo, Honor and Huawei are among Android companies that are accelerating their IOT focus on SA, targeting local consumers, businesses and government entities. They are taking advantage of Google’s ecosystem - Google Workspace, Google Home, Google Classroom, and Android Auto - to improve smart home automation, business operations, health and well-being for consumers.
Andre Wills, MD at Africa Analysis, say the global smartphone market is saturated and
diversifying into new product categories creates new revenue streams.
“Entry into the IOT space allows manufacturers to tap into new local markets such as smart homes, smart cities, industrial automation, healthcare, and the like,” says Wills.
Development in South Africa's IOT space is driven by several factors, including the growth of automation across various sectors of the economy requiring IOT devices, the growing smart home and smart office demand, and product diversification aimed at expanding revenue streams, he explains.
As SA’s smartphone market continues to be highly-competitive, OEMs need to ensure that their devices are able integrate into the increasingly automated environment, adds Wills. This in turn enables IOE connections – the intelligent network connections between people, things, data, and process.
“We will see increasing integration of IOT capabilities into other devices of everyday use, so that all the devices we use will become increasing smarter and will be able to seamlessly communicate with each other,” says Wills.
Phone evolves into “intelligent hub”
Samsung has been offering IOT devices for years locally, through its SmartThings platform, while Xiaomi ventured into the global IOT market in 2020.
Through its IOT Cloud Infrastructure platform, Huawei offers a range of cloud services locally, including an IOT platform, big data, security and management.
Honor tells ITWeb it recently started rolling out a portfolio of IOT device management business solutions in SA, which include full-scenario IOT services beyond phone devices, such as headsets, smart screens, and routers and renewable energy products.
Last week, Oppo South Africa announced a renewed focus on the local IOT space, introducing a slew of products to be rolled out in phases, targeting the business-to-business and business-to government sectors. These include Pantanal, a cross-platform smart system developed to connect multiple devices in the ‘Internet of experience’ and its OPPO Cloud service.
The unfortunate truth for us as OEMs is that we are making phones last longer and we're making them better and stronger.
Liam Faurie, head of go-to markets, Oppo SA.
The company also announced its CPE unit, which connects up to 250 users simultaneously to a 5G and fibre network.
Liam Faurie, head of go-to markets at Oppo South Africa, told ITWeb the growing need to compliment a smartphone with multiple devices has seen a growth in SA’s IOE and ‘internet of experiences’ landscape.
“The unfortunate truth for us as OEMs is that we are making phones last longer and we're making them better and stronger,” noted Faurie. “This means our users are holding onto their smartphones for longer, which impacts business. So phone companies have to re-think how they stimulate their revenues, and that's why we work very closely with the mobile network operators to ensure we diversify our products and flexible packages. These allow consumers to add on complimentary features or services and pay for them on a month-to-month basis.”
Director of business development at Africa Analysis, Dobek Pater, suggests stepping into the IOT ecosystem enables phone manufacturers to create ‘overlapping ecosystems’, wherein the smartphone can serve as the ‘intelligent hub’ for the management of IOT systems.
“The future market is the smart market made-up of sub-markets such as smart homes, smart cities, industrial automation, healthcare, and the like. This market, with its various sub-markets, opens many new opportunities for manufacturers. Embracing this future market will require manufacturers to further expand their product portfolio to enable these future ecosystems. Ultimately, the future smart market will merge into a single smart market that spans the sub-markets,” states Pater.
AI, IOT marriage boosts intelligence
Derrick Chikanga, IT services research manager at IDC, points out: “It is important for mobile OEMs to venture into the IOT space to enable increased coverage of IOT services in South Africa. Mobile devices are the gateway to the IOT ecosystem for consumers, hence the development of IOT-ready mobile devices will enable increased and seamless adoption of IOT services by both consumers and government.”
According to Chikanga, IOT use-cases are ever evolving depending on end-user needs. For example, issues around safety and security have continued to drive demand for video surveillance, access control and asset tracking solutions.
Much like the local artificial intelligence (AI) market, there will always be evolving, unlimited use-cases for IOT services in SA driven by end-user needs.
The marriage between AI, IOT and emerging technologies is optimising business processes, and taking intelligent homes to new heights, he adds.
“Mobile OEMs should continue developing their devices in line with the evolving technology landscape. There’s now a thin line between AI, IOT and other technologies, hence manufacturers should develop devices that integrate all the developing technologies to capture a wider audience for their services.”
Chikanga adds that consumers and businesses can take advantage of the IOT ecosystem benefits using mobile connectivity (3G, 4G, 5G, etc.) instead of relying solely on Wi-Fi or fibre connections.
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