What the 4th Phase of the Industrial Revolution Brings to Brands: The Internet of Things

The internet of things, which makes up the 4th phase of the industrial revolution, is coming to reshape humanity, just as the three previous phases (steam power technology, mass production and internet technology) did. This phase, which we could compare to a huge wave, not only changes our daily lives but also holds many threats and opportunities for brands. Let’s look at what this big wave means for brands.

Although the blurred vision brought on by the geometric growth rate of technology makes it impossible for us to see 10 years ahead, we can watch the internet of things, the final link of the industrial revolution that laid the foundations of the modern world and which we expect to leave its mark on the period ahead, crash onto the shores as a big wave. What matters is how prepared brands are for this wave!

To put the internet of things briefly, we can describe it as an ecosystem created by physical objects communicating with each other, analyzing your usage habits and offering you a better quality of life. In its simplest examples, we can talk about a coffee machine that makes your coffee every day before you wake up, a car that warms up its interior before you leave home and a fridge that orders milk for you when you run out. Simple as these examples are, they hold a very important place in the birth of an ecosystem. To visualize these tiny steps, we can look at the journey from the first mobile phone to smartphones:

So what does this mean for brands? Let’s look at how smartwatch sales developed in the last quarter of 2015. According to data released by Strategy Analytics, the number of smartwatches sold in the last quarter of 2015 overtook the number of Swiss watches sold in the same period (8.1 million vs. 7.9 million). Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, comments on this as follows: “The Swiss watch industry has been very slow to react to the development of smartwatches, burying its head in the sand and waiting for the trend to pass.”

Here is the point I want to make: we live in a world that is changing and developing at a tremendous pace. In this world there is no place for brands that fall behind, bury their heads in the sand, are late to make their move or think they are safe. According to research by the American Enterprise Institute, 88% of the companies on the 1955 Fortune 500, the list of the world’s 500 largest companies, are no longer on the list. In other words, 439 companies that were among the world’s 500 largest in 1955 can today find a place only in the dusty pages of history.

The industrial revolution, which began with steam power technology and evolved with mass production and internet technology, is coming to reshape the world with its last and perhaps most important phase, the “Internet of Things”. The market, worth 5 billion dollars in 2015, is expected to reach 35 billion dollars after just 4 years. The coming years will see the rise of companies that are prepared for this wave and can steer it, and the collapse of companies that get caught under the wave and drown.

• This article was first published in the March issue of Turkishtime.

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