Device manufacturers who have not yet moved their products towards being connected are facing an increasingly challenging future. Not only are they losing out on the high value software and data-driven service opportunities that connectivity creates, but they are also positioning themselves to lose market share to their competitors who have made this move and are now offering connected product and service packages as part of an ongoing IoT strategy.

There is now no doubt that, for these manufacturers, connecting their products unleashes a whole new range of opportunities and competitive advantages that are transforming traditional product markets. Those that do not are taking an increasingly large risk of their products becoming disrupted and uncompetitive in the future, write Robin Duke-Woolley, the chief executive, and Bill Ingle, a senior analyst, at Beecham Research.