Over the years there have been quite a few attempts at building ‘IoT marketplaces’, often using the (largely inappropriate) analogy of an app store. The aim has been to create an environment where potential buyers can pick from a portfolio – ranging from highly curated to very broad – of vendor offerings from individual components all the way to end-to-end managed services. These attempts have been mostly not particularly successful. The IoT marketplace has certainly not come to be recognised as the main mechanism through which enterprise customers procure IoT. However, IoT marketplaces persist and new versions are being deployed. In this scenario we think it is worth revisiting this part of IoT to see if there is really an opportunity for IoT vendors to reach new customers.
In this report we explore examples of IoT marketplaces that are available today from hyperscalers, ERP/CRM vendors, systems integrators, resellers, distributors, MNOs/MVNOs and others. Based on this analysis, and examining other analogous elements of IoT, the report provides some conclusions about the dynamics of this part of the IoT space and what seems to be working (and not working). It goes on to consider what characteristics might be required of an IoT marketplace to make it a success.
For IoT hardware the ‘marketplace’ in the form of distributors is a key part of the landscape. For solutions (and even other IoT elements such as connectivity and platforms) much less so. Partly this is because of the transactional nature of the hardware domain, partly because of the completeness of the offering, and partly because of the personas involved in making the different purchases. Connectivity could be ripe for presentation in a marketplace, but providers seem reticent to do so. Solutions are best presented in the context of a wider IT marketplace sitting alongside other tools equally applicable to the requirements of the vertical to which they’re targeted.
