Nobody likes looking for parking; especially in big cities, where parking spots can be scarce, and traffic is often dense. And we’ve all been there! There’s almost nothing more frustrating than showing up late for dinner plans or missing appointments due to a lack of parking.

Fortunately, more and more city planners and parking garage managers are leveraging IoT to roll out smart parking spaces. By simply outfitting parking spots with sensors, they’re able to build mobile apps that direct citizens towards the nearest available parking spaces.

People purchase home appliances based on the anticipated value of the appliance. While value can be calculated in any number of ways, one of the most important metrics from a consumer standpoint is long-term cost savings. How much water does a dishwasher use per load? How energy efficient are LED lights compared to incandescent lights? You get the idea.

Manufacturers are increasingly leveraging machine learning and IoT technologies to hand down extraordinary cost savings to consumers. This obviously helps them differentiate themselves on store shelves, but it also makes their products vastly more important on a macro level.

Public transport is one of the most important services a city can offer, providing convenient and affordable commuting options for citizens, commuters, and visitors alike. According to estimates from the American Public Transportation Association, for every 1 billion U.S. dollars invested in public transportation, 50,000 jobs are created and sustained across industries. Moreover, for every dollar of investment, public transportation generates approximately 5 dollars in economic returns.

This is where IoT comes into the picture. Smart City solutions like electronic bus stop signage, smart metro timetables, and Wi-Fi-enabled vehicles, are some of fastest growing areas of investment for public transportation. Indeed, such solutions offer more efficient services, improved commuter travel experiences, new revenue streams, and the ability to serve important alerts.

These days, smart kiosks can be found practically everywhere — at supermarkets, retailers, restaurants, airports, hotels, banks, healthcare centers, government agencies, and in Smart City deployments of all types. And there’s a good reason for this! Smart kiosks lead to shorter lines, more efficient services, lower labor costs, boosted revenue, and, most importantly, improved customer satisfaction.

Indeed, in a landscape dominated by ecommerce, social media, and endless hours of on-demand digital content, consumers have come to expect near-immediate gratification. While brick-and-mortar-based businesses will never be able to replicate the speed of an online media platform, technologies like smart kiosks can nevertheless deliver better experiences at better costs.

Today, smart kiosks are commonly found in:

The automobile industry is one of the biggest manufacturing industries in the world. What’s more, with an estimated one billion motor vehicles in use worldwide, it also happens to be highly competitive. So, to differentiate their fleets, many manufacturers are turning to IoT.

Consider this. According to Statista, approximately 28.5 million connected cars with embedded telematics were sold in 2019 alone. Moreover, a report from Markets and Markets predicts the connected vehicles market will reach a value of 166 billion U.S. dollars by 2025.

There’s no mystery here. IoT and connected vehicle solutions provide near-limitless potential for improving driver experiences, safety, and life-time value by enabling manufacturers to:

Violent crimes are costly. They take not only an emotional toll on victims and their families, but also inflict concrete economic costs. What’s more, they impose large costs on communities through lower property values, higher insurance premiums, reduced investment, and higher taxes.

So, unsurprisingly, cities all over the globe have turned to IoT to help protect the lives and properties of their citizens. For instance:

According to Future Business Insights, the Smart Home market is on pace to reach a value of 622.59 billion U.S. dollars by 2026. Moreover, they expect the value of the global Smart Building market to reach an estimated 109.48 billion U.S. dollars by the same year.

For those in the IoT industry, these numbers are unsurprising. Smart Home solutions offer homeowners countless benefits, including the ability to intelligently manage home devices, energy consumption, and utilities. In addition, they give people the ability to keep an eye on children, pets, home security — even carbon monoxide levels.

Likewise, the Internet of Things has helped facilities managers reduce the maintenance costs associated with their Smart Buildings, while simultaneously improving overall energy efficiency. Indeed, according to some estimates, IoT solutions can deliver a 15% reduction in energy costs.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution is responsible for more than 4.2 million deaths per year. And governments and organizations all over the globe are beginning to take the threat seriously, fining cities that fail to meet air quality standards and imposing taxes and regulations on high-polluting industries.

Fortunately, IoT has delivered substantial gains in environmental monitoring. It’s easier and more affordable than ever to keep tabs on such things as air quality, carbon dioxide levels, and the presence of carbon monoxide. Smart monitors and sensors capable of providing real-time insight into air pollution help companies, industries, and local governments stay within regulatory boundaries, avoid pollution-related fines, reduce their tax burdens, and, most importantly, protect the environment and foster healthy living conditions.

According to a recent study by the analytics company INRIX, drivers in the United States spent an average of 97 hours sitting in traffic in 2018, costing the country some 87 billion U.S. dollars. Moreover, not only is this frustrating for drivers, it’s also terrible for the environment.

To address these issues, civil engineers and urban planners have turned to IoT traffic congestion monitoring solutions. By placing smart cameras at key locations and implementing machine learning technologies to count car volume and measure capacity, these solutions help infrastructure managers identify and respond to instances of congestion, peak hours, and environmental factors (accidents, weather, etc.).

For most people, an accurate weather forecast is something of an afterthought: if you work in a climate-controlled office, then a little rain is unlikely to ruin your day. Nevertheless, there are some industries in which such forecasts are absolutely vital. Take agriculture, for instance.

All over the world, farmers and agronomists are leveraging connectivity technologies to help maximize their crop yields. While IoT sensors enable real-time measurements of weather and climate conditions, Big Data platforms and applications can be used to analyze this data and facilitate informed decision-making when planning for future crop cycles. Combined, these technologies help farmers reduce the risk of crop failure while simultaneously enabling them to save on labor, watering, and fertilization costs.

Intelligent energy management is among the most valuable uses for IoT. What’s more, the return on investment is both immediate and easy to calculate. In fact, it’s estimated that smart appliances and smart energy management solutions can reduce energy consumption in buildings by 20%.

These savings extend to the Smart City space as well. For instance, by building an interconnected system of smart streetlights, motion-activated traffic and surveillance cameras, and other real-time monitoring devices, cities can optimize their smart infrastructure and cut down on unnecessary energy consumption.

Smart devices, such as smart phones, tablets, smart watches, smart speakers, connected TVs (CTV), and Bluetooth headphones, are among the most commonly available IoT products. According to Google, 61% of people around the world own at least one smart device.

Moreover, many smart devices are capable of functioning as IoT hubs that connect much larger networks of sensors, monitors, and devices. A tablet, for instance, can be transformed into a comprehensive home command center. Use it as a TV remote, to stream video from security cameras, to find lost keys with Bluetooth keychains, to turn lights on and off around the house, to lock car doors, to make sure windows are closed during winter or when the A/C is on — the possibilities are endless!

In 2017, property crimes in the United States resulted in a total loss of approximately 15.3 billion U.S. dollars. Moreover, according to the New York Times, homes are 300% more likely to be burgled if they don’t have a home security system. So it should come as no surprise that home security is one of the most lucrative segments of the IoT market. Indeed, products like motion detecting cameras, video doorbells, smart locks, and smart smoke / CO detectors are incredibly popular among consumers and businesses alike.

By enabling home security and surveillance systems to connect to the Internet, or by equipping home appliances and other products with speakers and motion detecting cameras, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) can offer consumers the ability to: