The "Netscape Moment" in IOT
1. Defining the Netscape Moment
Once upon a time there was no Internet…hard to imagine now isn’t it? Everything that was traded publicly on Wall Street was some kind of brick-and-mortar business. Nobody could have predicted that Netscape would close at $2.9 billion dollars on the first day of public trading. This set a precedent in the history of the Internet as ‘The Netscape Moment’.
2. Why is the ‘Netscape Moment’ so important?
What would our world be like without the saying ‘ Just Google it’? The reason the Netscape moment is so important is because it started the dotcom boom, but more importantly the Internet era. Encouraged by Netscape’s success, companies rushed to this new platform called “the Web” to strike it big – and some did, a lot did not, but at the end of the day that movement created the Internet marketplace as we know it today. At about that time Jeff Bezos left a Wall Street firm where he was working, moved to Seattle and started Amazon.com. A couple of years later Larry Page and Sergey Brin started Google. Without Netscape there would have been no Google, or YouTube or Facebook or Amazon.
3. Has there been a Netscape moment in IoT?
As we launch into 2015, we see a lot of parallels between the Web and the Internet of things. We ask the question: Can we point our finger to a specific event, which would qualify as ‘The Netscape Moment in the Internet of Things’?
We decided that, perhaps, “the Nest Moment”, which happened earlier this year when Google acquired Nest Labs for $3.2bn would be a prime candidate for the “Netscape Moment of the IOT” or should we say “the Nestscape Moment”?
4. Why The Nest Moment is the Netscape Moment in IoT
A little over year ago the idea that an Internet of Things Company could be worth $3.2billion dollars seemed very far-fetched. Similar to The Netscape Moment, the adoption rate to a new platform was extraordinarily rapid. Specifically in the case of Nest – as a startup they managed to reach about 1% of the US population with their fairly pricey thermostat within 2 years. Just to put things in perspective – it took a comparable amount of time for the first iPod to reach a million of users – with a lot more marketing.
The event triggered more acquisitions – Nest Labs, in turn, acquired DropCam for $555 million, and later Revolv for an undisclosed amount. Samsung acquired SmartThings for $200 million in August.
In parallel, PTC, an enterprise software provider, acquired two IOT platform companies – ThingWorx and Axeda for a total of $300 million.
Now VCs, entrepreneurs and corporate executives are paying serious attention to the Internet of Things and what is coming next. This shift in acquisitions and development is why we believe that Nest became the Netscape Moment for The Internet of Things.
5. How this affects IoT in 2015
In the 90s, WallStreet analysts asked, “What is your Web strategy?” Now they are asking, “What is your Internet of Things strategy?”
Today there’s not a single company and not a single process that is not affected by the Internet or the Web. Everything has changed. The Internet has transformed the fundamental processes companies operate by. It has affected sales processes, order fulfillment and tracking, customer service, supply chain and logistics, marketing, and retail, among other things. The Internet has dramatically optimized these processes and made them a lot more efficient. Just think for a second how we book travel, check-in for a flight or track shipments.
And in just the same way, we believe that fairly soon there won’t be a single company or a singe process that is not affected by the Internet of Things. Here are some industries that are already showing the most potential:
– Healthcare
– Supply chain, logistics and manufacturing
– Farming and agriculture
– Marketing, Advertising & Retail
We look forward to having more discussions on the Internet of Things in the New Year! Join us January 12th for our Google Hangout Recapping CES 2015!
Twitter: @silentintelbook
Creating technology for a Sustainable Earth
9yThe biggest question ever is what will open source ecosystems do to device and hardware makers aggghhemmmmm Apple et al.? Where does the incredibly high margin business go? How will big companies cope supporting big overheads? Where I'm going is... These acquisitions could be poised merely to kill iot rather than support it? It's way too early to tell in my opinion there is just not enogh president yet.
Experienced DevRel leader with a spicy 🧠 and a big 💜
9yThis focusses to heavily on the *consumer* IoT. While important, it will be a very small percentage of the overall IoT market. M2M, industrial applications, smart cities, utilities, and other non-consumer oriented applications of IoT will utterly dwarf the consumer side. So I do not think that the "Nest Moment" is anything close to the "Netscape Moment" for the IoT. We've yet to get close to that, so far.
Visionary Product Executive with a Track Record of Driving Growth and Innovation
9ywell said Daniel and unarguably Netscape was a catalyst that launched the Internet as we know it today. But I disagree that without Netscape none of the current Internet players or landscape would have emerged. Nothing happens in a vacuum and something very akin to what we have today would have appeared in a similar, maybe just different players would have bubbled to the top having been spurred on from different sparks. As to how this correlates to the IoT defining moment, Nest is certainly is key part of the IoT market but is a more of solution and not the enabling technology that Netscape was so I'm not sure if they are the catalyst that you are looking for. Just MHO.
Digital Industry Growth Expert | Strategy Partner @ Momenta
9yNicely put Daniel. Happy New Year to you.