Comm. Smart Cities and IoT supplement Smart Cities and IoT | Seite 19

focal point
Marc Jadoul, strategic marketing director at Alcatel-Lucent states
that over the past decades, the Internet has evolved from a static
repository of interlinked hypertext documents to a dynamic universe
of networked humans, machines, and applications.
The Internet of content
In a sense the real Internet, as it is used today, started in the early
1990’s with the definition of HTTP and the creation of the World Wide
Web. Throughout this first phase, the web was static and mainly used
to publish and share content.
The Internet of services
Then, user-created content, XML, web services, and a broad range
of commerce, productivity, and collaboration led away from the static
pages of the early web sites. This heralded the rise of the Web 2.0.
The Internet of people
With the availability of affordable mobile broadband access, the
proliferation of smartphones and tablets, and the booming popularity of social network apps came a third phase in Internet evolution,
which is the one that currently exists, says Jadoul.

Daily life changes when everyday
objects connect and become part
of information systems and enduser applications

Over the past decades, the
Internet has evolved from a
static repository of interlinked
hypertext documents to a
dynamic universe of networked
humans, machines, and
applications

The Internet of things
The usage of the Internet is now at the beginning of the next
revolution, enabled by M2M communications.
Daily life changes when everyday objects connect and become
part of information systems and end-user applications, and create an
unlimited, ubiquitous, and connected universe in which machines and
humans interact to make our society safer, greener, and healthier.
Overall, M2M business is characterised by very small revenues per
connection, and even smaller margins. According to ABI Research,
about 20 per cent of the IoT value chain is in “connectivity”, while 77
per cent of revenues are characterised as “value added services”,
including platform revenues, device management, device connectivity, cloud services, application development, system integration,
analytics, and professional services.
One of the often underestimated challenges of building a sustainable M2M business is dealing with a complex and highly fragmented
ecosystem, in which sensor, SIM card, module and device vendors,
network and platform suppliers, application developers, system
integrators, connectivity and service providers are contributing to the
value chain.
According to Jadoul, communications service providers may play
different roles in this chain, complemented by partners. Their M2M
offering may range from connectivity and SIM card wholesale, over
device and application onboarding, to solution integration and
customisation for specific segments or customers.

In this developing business environment, M2M services and
solutions are sold directly