Top IoT app development company

What’s the simple definition of the Internet of Things? The Internet of Things (IoT) is a broad term that includes many types of devices. One way to define it would be as a worldwide network of an ever-growing number of electronic devices connected to the Internet.

In its essence, the Internet of Things consists of many interconnected devices that gather and exchange data between each other. These days, virtually anything can be made into an IoT-enabled device.

Today (July 2020), IoT is a massive industry with 50 billion connected devices generating 4.4 zettabytes of data.

IoT ranges in complexity from autonomous vehicles to simple, sensor-based utility devices that collect data in our buildings. IoT can make use of artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning to streamline the data gathering processes.

From the perspective of users, IoT means interacting with a global network without using any input devices like keyboards or touch screens. Many of our everyday objects and home appliances can now connect to that network with minimal effort.

When talking about IoT, we can distinguish three main types of IoT devices:

• Devices that collect data and then send it (sensors),
• Devices that receive data and then act on it (actuators),
• Devices that can do both these things.

Each of these IoT devices comes with its own IP address, and can communicate with an external, centralized data storage via a safe Internet connection.

An IoT network is made of devices that gather data using various sensors, from complex systems we find in autonomous vehicles, to simple sensors that monitor the temperature in office buildings. IoT also includes personal fitness devices like step trackers or heart rate monitors.

Sensors collect data by transferring it to a remote location where a machine is waiting to process and analyze it. This data transfer can be done wirelessly, via BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy), or using wired networks. Devices can send data via the Internet to a data center or cloud storage with a solution that has the computing power required to process it.

To unlock the value from data, the device collects, processes, filters, and analyzes it. Note that data itself can vary in complexity, from a simple temperature monitoring sensor to the complex full video feed.

This data can help machines to learn user preferences and adjust their work accordingly. This is what makes IoT devices “smart” – they can collect data from their surroundings and use it to change how they work using technologies like Machine Learning.

Most of the time, data processing takes place in data centers. But that’s not always possible due to larger latencies. Critical use cases like shutoffs in industrial settings or autonomous vehicles, make the delay of sending data from the device to a remote data center problematic.

It might render the system unusable or become a security threat. In such cases, local computing can help – this is where smart devices can aggregate data, analyze it, and then create demanded responses if necessary, all within close-to-real-time.

Data processing can also take place in physically connected edge devices that have upstream connectivity for sending data to be processed, stored, and analyzed further.

In the IoT world, you might also come across M2M communication. The machines created by the same manufacturer are often programmed to be able to seamlessly communicate with one another – for example, within a single household. This can greatly improve the performance of the whole system and contribute to its security. Users can set the devices up, give them instructions, or access the data – otherwise, the devices do most of the work on their own.

An IoT system requires many different components to work seamlessly together and deliver the functionalities for which it was designed. Here’s a list of the most important IoT components:

• End devices and sensors – sensors capture electric pulse or analog signals that are passed through IoT ecosystems. Examples include an accelerometer or a Gyroscope sensor.
• Network or connectivity layer – in an IoT ecosystem, sensors are typically connected with computation and intelligent layers via network or connectivity layers. IoT components can be connected to different networks, from telephony and wireless (LTE, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi) to light-based technologies (Li-Fi). An IoT network consists of various components such as routers, gateways, switches, and network protocols.
• Security layers – data is at the core of any industry-grade IoT ecosystem, requiring proper security systems and methodologies to avoid issues that might arise at any point, from data acquisition to business insights derivation. Strong encryption in various communications is recommended, with the help of firmware, anti-malware systems, and other tools.
• Compute engines – IoT systems often use multiple technology stacks inside one umbrella that require using a cloud-based platform or developing proprietary infrastructure.
• Governance standards – to deal with the information flow over the various components of an IoT ecosystem, businesses need to use standards such as: technical (WAN, Wi-Fi), network protocols (HTTP, UDP), data management standards (ETL, CAP), and the regulations issued by the local authorities.

If you’re wondering what kinds of objects can be transformed into an IoT device, here’s some good news. Practically anything can be connected to the internet to transmit information and allow control. 

For example, a light bulb that you switch on using a smartphone app is an IoT device. So is a smart thermostat at your office or a streetlight equipped with a motion sensor. An IoT device could be anything from a child’s toy to a driverless truck.

A popular type of IoT are smartwatches, fitness bands, and other wearable devices. It’s also possible to fill larger objects with multiple smaller IoT components – for example, a jet engine that includes thousands of sensors, which collect and transmit data to ensure its efficient operation.

Moreover, smart city projects are often based on filling entire buildings or regions with sensors that allow understanding and controlling the environment better.

Why wouldn’t we call a PC or smartphone an IoT device? After all, they can both transmit data and are often filled with various sensors. However, the term IoT is used primarily for devices that wouldn’t usually be connected to the internet or be able to communicate with the network independently of human action.

Here are three examples of IoT devices:

1. Google Home Voice Controller

   This smart device allows users to access features like media, alarms, lights, thermostats, volume control, and many more functions just by using their voice. Users can control their Tv, speakers, and other devices at their homes using this smart voice assistant. Read also: 7 ideas for growing your business with Google Assistant.

2. Philips Hue Bulbs and Lighting System

   Philips Hue is a widespread IoT device for building personal wireless lighting systems that allow controlling light and creating the best ambiance for a given moment. Users can synchronize the system with music, set light schedules, and benefit from comfort dimming.

3. Air Quality Monitor by Foobot

   This handy device measures indoor pollution and helps to improve the air quality in houses, workplaces, and indoor public spaces. It not only cleans the air but also keeps the right levels of humidity and temperature.

How to develop an IoT app? Development teams responsible for building an IoT mobile application usually follow this sequence of steps designed to eliminate errors and accelerate the development process.

1. Be aware of the unique IoT requirements

Before building an IoT app, you need to consider a few things first:

• Security – devices that will be collecting and transmitting data in your network might be subjected to data breaches. That’s why security and data protection need to become your primary focus – in terms of both hardware and software.
• Data streaming – your network might include hundreds of devices connected to each other. They might end up transmitting high volumes of data. That’s why your IoT app needs to be capable of fast data streaming.
• Data management – to manage a complex IoT system, you will need a set of management tools that can be developed together with the software solutions or as individual elements.

2. Develop and refine your app idea

Before starting a time-consuming and expensive development process, you need to have a clear idea about the app you want to build. Decide on elements such as industry requirements, key functionalities, access modes, alerts and notifications, and user dashboards. To achieve the best results and eliminate issues before they become big problems, develop a prototype or Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and test it with users to see what they think before building the full version of your product.

3. Find the right hardware

Depending on the industry, you might have to dedicate more or less time to choose the right hardware for your IoT implementations. Devices intended for IoT usage have a few key features in common such as low power consumption, wireless data transmission, and embedded operating system (OS). Naturally, the best way to do this is by hiring an expert who will help you to navigate between various choices of IoT hardware.

4. Make the decision about data storage

For your IoT system to work smoothly, you need to find the right centralized data storage. This is where you’ll be collecting, processing, and analyzing data. Cloud-based platforms are a great fit here because they enable data transmission even if the connection isn’t that great.

5. Choose the cloud platform

Global IT companies offer several solutions to help in IoT development:

Amazon Web Services provides a wide range of services that include file hosting, cloud computing, and excellent security.

Azure IoT Suite is another helpful tool that enables developers to integrate the collected information with the devices and offers a robust cloud architecture for handling great volumes of data.

Oracle IoT, one of the leading software solutions for creating IoT applications, offers features such as device virtualization, fast data exchange, convenient management, Rest API support, and more.

6. Development

At this point, you’re ready to start the development work. When building IoT solutions, teams usually start with backend development. The main goal at the beginning is creating an optimized algorithm that solves routine tasks, as well as all of the key features of your app. Next, it’s time to focus on frontend development and build an attractive and functional user interface (UI) for your end-users to enable interaction. Build an intuitive interface with easy navigation to boost the popularity of your app.

7. Testing

It’s smart to engage Quality Assurance specialists already at the stage of developing the application. However, once your app is ready, you can also show it to a selected group of beta testers who will verify that everything works. The feedback of these users is critical to the success of your app – it will give you an opportunity to implement changes and improve your product before the official launch.

Risk management is a vital part of developing IoT solutions. Here are some of the dangers and risk factors you should consider before launching an IoT app development project.

Security and privacy issues

Companies are often unprepared for risks created by unique vulnerabilities in IoT applications. In many cases, IoT apps are harder to secure than mobile apps, and the focus on agile software development makes these apps more vulnerable to cyberattacks.

At the same time, they have access to personal user data like name, date of birth, card information, and more, which is sometimes saved without any solid encryption. This is a threat to the privacy and security of users.

Imagine this scenario: a health monitoring app with access to data about a user’s illness history contains a vulnerability that causes a data leak, and the information is traced back to this user.

If your IoT app includes sensitive data, ensure that encryption and secure coding are integrated into your development process.

Other security challenges include:

• Data exchange security – it’s crucial to recognize that the information transferred from IoT sensing units and devices to a system is stored in the cloud. Make sure that the guarantee data file encryption protocol is followed during app development.
• Physical security – IoT devices are typically neglected and easily accessible. Inspecting whether security measures are in place is important as well
• Cloud storage security – although cloud storage space comes with state-of-the-art security methods, it’s difficult for developers to guarantee that all of the IoT system data gateways are secured correctly. Suitable means for authentication and authorization need to be considered as well.
• Privacy updates – data fetched by IoT devices always falls under particular rules and laws. For example, fitness trackers collect user data based on the HIPAA data handling guidelines. Conforming to such regulations ensures the right level of data privacy.

Internet access

Another obstacle is access to a good internet connection. In our digital world, there are still some places where good internet throughput is not available. The more IoT devices in one place, the more internet bandwidth they will use. Poor connectivity often results in monitoring and tracking issues.

Data collection

Another common problem in IoT development has to do with data collection and processing pipeline. Because virtually any IoT application involves a significant quantity of data, its collection and processing pose some challenges for system engineers.

Teams need to plan well and establish how data will be gathered, saved, or processed within an environment. To accomplish that, you need data science professionals, analytics designers, and Machine Learning experts.

Multiple device types

Another key problem in the introduction of IoT is the integration of multiple types of devices. The reason behind this issue is that device manufacturers haven’t reached a consensus regarding communication protocols and standards.

Every manufacturer creates its own separate ecosystem of IoT devices that don’t work with the devices and applications of competing manufacturers. In such a situation, there are no synchronous protocol developers could follow for data aggregation and communication. The non-uniformity slows down the process of adoption and reduces the potential scalability of IoT in sectors such as healthcare. To synchronize two different systems, clients need a tailored solution.

To reduce the chances of potentially harmful security threats, a multi-layered security approach is recommended for IoT application development. It’s best to assume that security breaks can happen anytime, so it’s important that you arm yourself with a plan to secure your data.

IoT provides many benefits to both business and individual consumers. By connecting devices embedded in larger systems to the internet, IoT allows these devices to capture data from any place and be controlled from any endpoint. This opens the doors to greater performance and efficiency of businesses, and better service delivered to customers.

IoT is set to bring significant benefits to the utilities industry, manufacturing, oil and gas, entertainment, retails, and many others. In its essence, the data generated by IoT implementation will help business leaders in these sectors to understand their processes better and make more informed decisions.

But this is just the tip of the icebergs.

Other benefits of IoT include cost savings, greater process efficiency, and enhanced asset utilization. By tracking devices with the help of sensors, companies can access insights from real-time analytics to make smarter decisions. This is how IoT creates new opportunities for consumers, businesses, and entire industries.

How large is the market value of IoT, and what volume is it going to reach in the near future?

• According to Accenture, Industrial IoT (IIoT) might contribute as much as $14.2 trillion to the global economy by 2030.
• IDC predicts that there will be 41.6 billion connected IoT devices around the world by 2025, with industrial and automotive devices representing the largest chunk of connected things. This will be followed by the strong adoption of smart home and wearable devices.
• Moreover, Gartner predicts that the enterprise and automotive sectors will bring to live for 5.8 billion connected devices in 2020. This study points to the utility sector as the highest user of IoT due to the rising rollout of smart meters. Security devices such as intruder detection and web cameras are going to be the second biggest segment of IoT devices. 
• Another IoT vertical, smart home, and home automation, is expected to blossom over the next few years, reaching the overall market revenue of $157 billion by 2023.

The use of smart devices has increased across different sectors like transportation, hospitality, healthcare, and education. The rise of IoT is accelerated by the unique benefits it brings to businesses.

Greater productivity

The use of smart devices helps to increase the productivity level of organizations in many different ways. IoT allows the monitoring and control of the different processes for optimizing operations and increasing team efficiency. For example, in the context of manufacturing, IoT can help in managing resources and real-time monitoring of different production stages.

Predictive analytics

By collecting massive amounts of data, IoT solutions give businesses the opportunity to examine recurring patterns and contribute to predictive analytics solutions. The insights they generate can then be used in the preventive maintenance of manufacturing machines and increasing the level of service delivered.

Enabling real-time response

IoT is all about a rapid, near real-time response. The previously collected data allows companies to monitor systems in real-time and remotely. IoT facilitates the optimization of maintenance processes and decision making, offering companies a strategic advantage in monitoring anything from device operation to customer behaviors and market trends.

Real-time monitoring also reduces the associated risk with regular business operations and routine activities. For example, IoT dashboards help to keep the operation of machinery safe by informing the staff about anomalies through alert systems and digital panic buttons. The technology also identifies when machines or operators might be in danger.

Customer insights

IoT provides businesses with the ability to collect data from the network and use advanced analytics to uncover business insights, identify customer segments, and reduce operational cost.

For example, a company can select a sampling of data about its top customers and then break down the data that can be collected about them to create an initial baseline. The company can learn how customers are requesting services and what the typical response is.

This opens the door to optimizing the process and processing requests faster. By harnessing IoT data, you can create new opportunities and discover market niches.

Error reduction

IoT helps to reduce the costs of market research, as well as the expenses originating in human errors. Thanks to the complementary nature of technologies such as AI, IoT makes it possible to reduce the number of human-made errors to a minimum during mundane or repetitive tasks.

An IoT system can be put in place to discover and automatically report on process abnormalities, lowering the cost of labor and maintenance time.

Optimizing products and services

Leading companies are using IoT to fine-tune their services and products. The customers might need a product or service, but if the flow of information is poorly tuned, you will never learn about their requirements. IoT offers you the opportunity to identify gaps or interruptions of data relative to the process in which your customer is engaged.

The Internet of Things (IoT) comes with a wide range of benefits for organizations that decide to invest in a system of connected devices.

Cost-effectiveness

IoT helps organizations in carrying out tasks at improved efficiency, leading to significant cost savings. The IoT devices and apps help companies to monitor equipment, minimize downtime, and eliminate risk. Remote control or predicting future system failures are also possible thanks to IoT.

Consumer insights

Successful businesses know how to map their product and service offerings to the constantly evolving customer demands. With the help of IoT, companies can collect even more relevant data for analysis. This data is a valuable resource for learning more about customer preferences to develop successful applications and products.

Enhanced productivity

By adopting the latest trends in software development such as IoT, organizations get access to real-time data about their assets, employees, and customers. IoT applications development also helps to streamline processes through automation, inform employees about expected technical disruptions, support remote troubleshooting procedures, and fix errors in work stations.

Better customer experience

IoT applications can help consumers in carrying out many different tasks, from paying for products with mobile card readers to navigating a shopping mall using an IoT-enabled app that connects with sensors. This is how businesses can streamline the customer experience and lead their target audiences down the sales funnel to conversion. Moreover, IoT technologies such as smart grid technologies and smart meters help users to identify and resolve problems.

Workplace safety

IoT also plays an increasingly important role in workplace safety and security. Many devices connected to such applications include embedded sensors and wearables that help workers who work in high-risk environments. Such implementations also allow companies to monitor real-time data to identify potential threats before they emerge.

Since IoT implementations embed multiple devices and applications in a single system, they pose new requirements to development teams. Mobile devices with IoT functionalities allow users to complete novel actions such as switching the lights on or checking their security cameras.

So how has the process of building apps for IoT purposes affect mobile developers?

Development teams usually focus on creating apps that are functional, high-performing, bug-free, and user-friendly. However, IoT poses new requirements in mobile app development:

• The matter of integration becomes more important as an app now needs to be able to communicate with IoT-enabled devices and match the expectations of users.
• Security is another key objective in IoT mobile app development as developers strive to provide their apps with secure connections with devices of all types. This is because IoT involves creating a large number of entry points that could become a threat to the security of the apps. Cybersecurity expertise is critical to building a mobile app that is safe, secure, and ensures that the users’ privacy isn’t threatened at any stage.
• IoT implementations often require building a single centralized application where end users can manage multiple devices connected to it.
• Mobile app development companies often collaborate with providers of sensors such as the Beacon technology, which emits a signal when the app enters a predefined region.
• Hybrid apps are gaining steam in the context of IoT. Hybrid apps combine the characteristics of native apps (for example, being developed for a specific mobile platform) with elements from web apps (websites that work like apps that aren’t installed on a device).

The Internet of Things includes protocols that we can divide into two basic types: IoT Network Protocols and IoT Data Protocols.

Here’s a list of the major IoT connectivity standards and protocols:

• Bluetooth – one of the most widely used wireless technologies for short-range implementations, especially the recently introduced BLE or Bluetooth Low-Energy protocol.
• WiFi – a common choice in IoT thanks to its infrastructure that allows quick data transfer rates and the possibility to transmit a large quantity of data.
• ZigBee – a protocol designed more for the industrial use of IoT, where data is often transferred over low rates at homes or buildings.
• MQTT IoT – a message protocol used for monitoring infrastructures in remote areas.
• CoAP – the Constrained Application Protocol is internet productivity and utility protocol used mainly in smart gadgets.
• DDS – Data Distribution Service is a standard for high-performance and real-time machine-to-machine communication.
• NFC – Near Field Communication offers the advantage of safe two-way communication linking and allows the end-users to connect to the electronic devices or carry out contactless payment transactions.
• Cellular – some IoT applications need to transfer data over large distances, and cellular communication capabilities like GSM/3G/4G are a great pick for this.
• AMQP – the Advanced Message Queuing Protocol is an application layer protocol designed for middleware environments.
• LoRaWAN – the Long Ranged Wide Area Network is one of the key IoT protocols for wide area networks, designed to support vast networks with a large number of low-power devices – for example, in smart cities.
• RFID – Radio Frequency Identification uses wireless technology to identify objects without the need for any power.
• Z-Wave – this type of protocol offers low-power RF (Radio Frequency) communications, frequently used in home automation applications.

The primary function of an IoT platform is acting as middleware or plumbing that connects devices or applications to the other end. IoT includes a mixture of functionalities like sensors and controllers, a gateway device, communication network, data analyzing and translating software, and an end application service.

IoT cloud platforms handle massive data volumes from devices, customers, applications, websites, and sensors – and take action for a near-real-time response.

How to select the best Internet of Things platform? This depends on your requirements for physical hardware, real-time processing capabilities, custom reports and analysis, budget, development skills required for system creation and maintenance, and your business model.

Here’s a comparison of the most popular platforms to help you choose the best solution.

IBM Watson IoT

• Offers AI and complex analytics solutions.
• Domain expertise.
• Provides flexible solutions.
• Provides security.
• Captures real-time data.
• Provides an analytics service as an add-on.

Google Cloud Platform

• Offers machine learning capabilities for any IoT need.
• Real-time business insights for globally dispersed devices.
• AI capabilities.
• Provides support for a wide range of embedded operating systems.
• Location intelligence.

Amazon AWS IoT Core

• Can process a huge amount of messages.
• Reliable and secure platform to route the messages to AWS endpoints and other devices.
• Your applications will track and communicate even when not connected.
• You can easily integrate it with other popular AWS services like AWS Lambda.
• Access to the devices is secure.

Microsoft Azure IoT Suite

• Provides an open platform to build a robust application.
• Can be used by beginners as well as experts.
• There are two solutions available: an IoT SaaS and open-source IoT Templates.

IoT is predicted to become a key technology trend across many industries, vertical, and platforms, connecting devices ranging from wearable fitness trackers to trucks or smart farms. According to Statista, by the end of 2020, there will be over 30.73 billion IoT devices around the world. What’s in store for IoT in the near future? Here are some key directions in which IoT is going to develop.

5G

5G is a groundbreaking technology that will allow users to download an HD-quality movie to their device in just a few seconds. The mobile network combines speed with low latency and broad coverage. Experts predict that it’s thanks to 5G that will make fully-autonomous vehicles more realistic. The deployment of 5G will expand the IoT networks as well, allowing companies to control even more devices remotely through applications. Healthcare is set to benefit most from this next-generation mobile network, with 73% of executives working in healthcare expecting to offer new services and products thanks to 5G.

Edge computing

The growth of IoT devices transmitting data in real-time will require more computing power than available today. This is where edge computing comes in. Edge computing is expected to bring computations and data closer to the device to avoid latency issues, which today affect application performance so much. This is going to make a real difference, especially for real-time data. Edge computing will also help to lower the bandwidth costs for IoT data that will travel very long distances.

Augmented reality (AR)

The fields of IoT and augmented reality (AR) are becoming increasingly connected. While the former fills a gap between physical assets and digital infrastructure, AR brings the digital elements to life. The combination of IoT and AR could help employees in sectors such as retail. For example, a handheld AR device could identify the data that should be displayed to employees, and IoT sensors could be used to measure and transmit this data (for instance, temperature). The mix of these technologies will be used in the future for maintaining equipment in distant locations or in hazardous conditions.

Digital Twins

Digital Twin is a digital copy of a physical device, bridging the gap between the physical and virtual worlds. The constant transmission of data allows both of these entities to work at the same time. The primary advantage of this technology is that it solves a significant risk present in IoT implementations – security. A digital model built with the help of specialized platforms can auto-update IoT devices remotely and grant full control over devices, shutting them off remotely whenever they suspect an attack.

Industrial IoT

In the near future, IoT is going to begin transitioning from consumer to industry (IIoT) sectors. Industries that are expected to take the most advantage of the Internet of Things are healthcare, retail, agriculture, and household technologies.

For example, in healthcare IoT devices could help doctors to keep track of their patients’ conditions remotely or hospitals to monitor the work of employees and the condition of medical equipment.