Why the Internet of Things is as simple as Twitter

IoT and Twitter

Yes, #IoT + #IIoT and #Twitter are truly birds of a feather.

Twitter is made up of people who have something to say. These people express themselves by Tweeting. Oftentimes, no one is listening. There are other people on Twitter who choose to follow those Tweeters in order to listen to what they have to say. Those people are called Followers. These folks often follow lots of Tweeters to understand the state of their collective minds. A Follower gets notified when a Tweeter they’re following says something. Through the clever use of Hashtags, followers can also choose to search for specific topics aggregated across many Tweeters in order to derive larger insights. Depending on the insight, the Follower takes action. Sometimes, a Follower wants to say something to a Tweeter. They can do this with a Direct Message (DM). Of course, a Follower can only send a DM if the Tweeter has authorized this by following the Follower back. The Follower may say something to the Tweeter that either changes her behavior or updates her state of mind.

You never know.

The Internet of Things is made up of machines that have something to say. These machines express themselves by Publishing their telemetry data to some nearby or far away computer system over a communications network. Oftentimes, no one is listening and that data just piles up. There are computers, people, apps, analytics, machine learning and automation systems who are interested in what the machines have to say. They are called Subscribers. They Subscribe to lots of Publishers in order to know the current state of their collective health or performance. A Subscriber often gets notified when a Publisher streams new data which allows them to process that information in near real-time. Subscribers can also choose to search through data swimming in a lake to derive larger insights. Depending on the insight, the Subscriber takes action. Sometimes, a Subscriber or some other endpoint wants to send data to a Publisher or group of Publishers. They can do this through a Command and Control channel. Of course, a Subscriber can only send a message if the Publisher has authorized this action. The Subscriber might send a Command that either changes the Publisher’s behavior or updates its configuration.

You never know.

I realize it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the sheer complexity of these systems that are transforming our world. That’s why it’s important to maintain the simplest view of what these IoT systems are actually doing. Explaining it to others gets easier which allows you to focus on the specific element that drives value.

comScore Reports May 2010 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share

Cellular Tower

ComScore, Inc. released data from the comScore MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending May 2010 compared to the preceding three-month average.

The report ranked the leading mobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and smartphone operating system (OS) platforms in the U.S. according to their share of current mobile subscribers age 13 and older, and reviewed the most popular activities and content accessed via the subscriber’s primary mobile phone. The May report found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 22.4 percent market share, while RIM led among smartphone platforms with 41.7 percent market share.

OEM Market Share

For the 3 month average period ending in May, 234 million Americans age 13 and older used mobile devices. Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 22.4 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, up one percentage point from the preceding three month period. LG ranked second with 21.5 percent share, followed by Motorola (21.2 percent share), RIM (8.7 percent share, up 0.5 percentage point) and Nokia (8.1 percent share).

Top Mobile OEMs
3 Month Avg. Ending May 2010 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Feb. 2010
Total U.S. Age 13+
Source: comScore MobiLens
Share (%) of Mobile Subscribers
Feb-10May-10Point Change
Total Mobile Subscribers100.0%100.0%N/A
Samsung21.4%22.4%1.0
LG21.7%21.5%-0.2
Motorola22.3%21.2%-1.1
RIM8.2%8.7%0.5
Nokia8.7%8.1%-0.6

Smartphone Platform Market Share

49.1 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in May, up 8.1 percent from the corresponding February period. RIM was the leading mobile smartphone platform in the U.S. with 41.7 percent share of U.S. smartphone subscribers, followed by Apple with 24.4 percent share and Microsoft with 13.2 percent. Google saw significant growth during the period, up 4.0 percentage points to capture 13.0 percent of smartphone subscribers, while Palm rounded out the top five with 4.8 percent. Despite losing share to Google Android, most smartphone platforms continue to gain subscribers as the smartphone market overall continues to grow.

Top Smartphone Platforms
3 Month Avg. Ending May 2010 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Feb. 2010
Total U.S. Age 13+
Source: comScore MobiLens
Share (%) of Smartphone Subscribers
Feb-10May-10Point Change
Total Smartphone Subscribers100.0%100.0%N/A
RIM42.1%41.7%-0.4
Apple*25.4%24.4%-1.0
Microsoft15.1%13.2%-1.9
Google9.0%13.0%4.0
Palm5.4%4.8%-0.6

*May data does not include the impact of Apple’s launch of iPhone 4, which
became available in June.

Mobile Content Usage

65.2 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device in May, up 1.4 percentage points versus the prior three month period, while browsers were used by 31.9 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 2.3 percentage points). Subscribers who used downloaded applications comprised 30.0 percent of the mobile audience, representing an increase of 2.1 percentage points from the previous period. Accessing of social networking sites or blogs also saw significant growth, increasing 2.6 percentage points to 20.8 percent of mobile subscribers.

Mobile Content Usage
3 Month Avg. Ending May 2010 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Feb. 2010
Total U.S. Age 13+
Source: comScore MobiLens
Share (%) of Mobile Subscribers
Feb-10May-10Point Change
Total Mobile Subscribers 100.0%100.0%N/A
Sent text message to another phone63.8%65.2%1.4
Used browser29.6%31.9%2.3
Used downloaded apps27.9%30.0%2.1
Played games21.8%22.5%0.7
Accessed social networking site or blog18.2%20.8%2.6
Listened to music on mobile phone13.1%14.3%1.2

– Rob

Sharing my knowledge and helping others never stops, so connect with me on my blog at https://robtiffany.com , follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RobTiffany and on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/robtiffany

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