Well, what’s that got to do with the Internet of Things?

We at the Bosch IoT Lab view the IoT as a system where “… virtually every physical thing in this world can also become a computer that is connected to the Internet”. When thinking (and writing) about business models for the IoT, this quickly leads to the idea that “virtually every physical thing” can become an autonomous actor in a worldwide data market. “Market” implies that data is being exchanged for money, right?

Let’s take an example: some organization installs a nationwide network of sensors to detect the availability of parking spaces. The infrastructure costs a lot of money (it’s nationwide, after all), but the data collected is valuable for many interested parties. As you drive around on your quest for a parking space, you pull up an app and see the real-time data from some 20 sensors.