Physics / mechanism
IoT & Connected Devices encompasses networked physical hardware—sensors, actuators, edge compute nodes—that collect, process, and transmit data. The stack runs from silicon (MCUs, SoCs, RF transcanceivers) through firmware and connectivity protocols (Bluetooth LE, Zigbee, Matter, LTE-M, NB-IoT, Wi-Fi 6) to cloud ingestion. Key parameters: power budget (µA sleep / mA active), latency, data throughput, and unit cost at scale. Market sits at ~$500B (2024) growing ~12% CAGR. Dominant silicon vendors: Nordic Semi, Silicon Labs, STMicro, NXP, Qualcomm. Edge inference increasingly on-device via dedicated NPUs (Arm Ethos, Ambiq). Connectivity fragmentation remains the primary integration tax.
Competitive landscape
Adjacent pressure comes from three directions: (1) purpose-built ASIC/ASSP designs undercutting general MCU margins; (2) cellular IoT (NB-IoT/LTE-M) displacing short-range mesh in industrial; (3) Wi-Fi 7 / UWB consolidating positioning + data onto fewer radios.
| Dimension | Short-range mesh | Cellular IoT | Wired (IO-Link/TSN) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Power | µW–mW | mW–100mW | Line-powered |
| Coverage | <100m | Wide-area | Fixed topology |
| Cost/node | $1–5 | $5–15 | $10–50 |
Companies using
Connected ideas
Sources
Frontier (open questions)
- To be added.