The Internet of Things (IoT) is the most improved technology of 2018, followed closely by artificial intelligence, new research reveals.
Global technology solutions provider Avnet polled 1,190 members of the 1.3 million-strong Hackster.io and element14 engineering communities to understand where they are focusing their development efforts.
The Hackster.io developer community for learning, programming, and building hardware is a division of Avnet. It brings together a global network of over 700,000 innovators and technology partners.
element14, on the other hand, is is the first online community specifically for engineers. Established in 2009, it has become the industry standard for electronics collaboration.
More than a quarter of developers surveyed (26 percent) noted that IoT is the most improved technology of 2018, followed closely by artificial intelligence (AI) at 25 percent.
According to 61 percent of respondents, IoT and sensors are the most important technologies for products they’re designing today. IoT products saw the most significant growth in importance, up 14 percent from last year, followed closely by drones and robotics projects, which were up 8 percent.
“Developers have more access to resources and communities like ours, and this is helping accelerate the pace of bringing new products to market,” said Dayna Badhorn, vice president of emerging business, Avnet.
“IoT and sensors are leading the way in importance and impacting the design process. But survey respondents also noted these are the most underrated technologies when it comes to innovation, signaling that IoT and sensors will have an even greater impact as developers engage partners to help them take their ideas from prototype to production,” she added.
Developers, however, believe that security remains the biggest technological hurdle in IoT deployment (81 percent). They also said that cost is the biggest challenge in moving from design to manufacturing.
According to the developers, the most difficult elements of product development are identifying the best technology to use in their designs (26 percent), as well as obtaining product certification (22 percent). The most challenging aspect of bringing products to market is obtaining financing for development (34 percent).
More than a third (37 percent) of developers have sought a partner to help them bring a product to market.
Developers said that they lean toward those who have a strong track record in their industry (49 percent), can offer strong technical support (43 percent), or are a result of a personal relationship or recommendation (39 percent).
“These trends suggest that having one partner who can offer critical design, development and manufacturing capabilities can be invaluable to the go-to-market strategy,” Badhorn added.
