Pebble Watch and Embedded Systems: Trillions of Simple Things

Currently there are about 30 billion sensors in the world that could be considered embedded.  This means that those old mercury based thermostats that are still laying around in the environment don’t count.  That is 30 billion devices that use some sort of CPU or connect to a CPU in some way.  Pretty big number.

Another big number: 7.2 Trillion Dollars in 2017 is the size of the marketplace for embedded sensors.

How are you going to get rich of off of this bonanza?  If you are a Computer Engineer or an Electrical Engineer you need to think: Apps.

The App ecological system is pretty much a robust but broken environment where it is clear that Google’s advertisement business is struggling, at least according to the most recent Wall Street Journal report on earnings.  Murdoch of Fox News fame a number of years ago questioned the ability of advertisement to support corporations like Microsoft and Google long term.  So for the embedded sensor engineers it appears you won’t get that handy beginner push like the software guys did.  And you won’t get the social media silliness either which succeeds in an environment that is supported by advertisements.  So you will have to create the next new thing, but when you do keep this in mine: monetization.

Yep. You. Have. To. Make. A. Profit. 

Unlike Amazon, which has NOT made a profit in it’s entire corporate life, or Twitter, again no profit.  Software only gets away with that because it is still being defined.  Electrical Engineering and other engineering, with the exception of bio-engineering, after all some losses are ok with me if you are making a cancer drug to save my life, do not get to lose money.  Historically you had your chance back in the 1800s for Mechanical and early 1900s for Electricals.  So you missed out.  Software will have to be profitable, Adam Smith says so, capitalism sucks.

So start thinking about how to get your arduino system built and working with Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1, the time is now, and you could make billions providing part of the trillions of sensors that will be needed to make the bureaucrats, corporate wonks and just everyday people happy.  Pebble Watch looks like the vanguard and I would recommend that you take a good hard look at that.

Check out a good friend of Microsoft, ICOPTECH, this is a small company that makes some super duper devices.

https://icoptech.com/en/event/COMPUTEX-2014-Taipei-3-7June2014/1.html

Get your billion$ providing trillions.