Three Trends of Wireless Connectivity in IoT Applications in 2020

Just after 2019, some of our technologists at Dialog semiconductor analyzed and presented their predictions for trends in wireless connectivity and automotive for 2020 and the next decade. In both of these areas, we’ve seen a lot of big changes over the past few years, and as our subject matter experts say, there’s still a lot of potential to be discovered in these two areas.

We will present some of the most important industry trend forecasts in our “Dialog Forecast” series. In this article, Adrie Van Meijeren, Product Marketing Manager, Low Power Connectivity Business Unit, Dialog Semiconductor, shares his views on the trends of wireless connectivity in IoT applications over the next 12 months.

1. Smart tags and item tracking will become the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) the main driving force.

As the Industrial Internet of Things continues to grow over the next decade, 2020 will see more businesses adopting smart labels in retail and manufacturing. A major factor driving this trend is the ability of smart tags to track product usage using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) wireless connectivity technology.

For example, in a retail environment, stores will be able to see how an item is selling compared to other items based on where the item is on the shelf, what time of day it sells better, what type of customers it attracts, etc. This will help stores dynamically adjust item prices based on the situation.

We are also seeing BLE technology beginning to replace RFID in item tracking applications, such as determining customer traffic in an area of ​​a store, or tracking the quantity and inventory location of items.

2. IoT wireless connectivity technology will be increasingly integrated into disposable smart medical devices.

IoT technology has already brought about a range of innovations in automotive, manufacturing, home appliances, and the home, but one of its most revolutionary applications is arguably the medical and pharmaceutical fields, especially in patient care.

With improvements in SoC design, we have achieved more technological advancements in this area, such as Dialog’s recently released DA14531 Bluetooth low energy chip, ideal for adding wireless connectivity to single-use medical applications. More such designs will emerge in 2020, especially around the use of disposable batteries in medical devices. This will drive the widespread adoption of new wireless connected medical devices such as smart inhalers, smart blood pressure monitors, smart blood glucose meters, etc., which will utilize BLE wireless connectivity to send real-time feedback data to users and doctors.

Of course, due to the long time-to-market cycles for medical and pharmaceutical devices, we can be optimistic that this year will see these devices really break into the mainstream. At the same time, 2020 is important for laying the groundwork for this trend, which will continue to grow in the future.

3. The adoption of smart appliances will grow in 2020, but there will be no mainstream push for the time being.

In the past few years, there has been a lot of publicity and promotion around smart homes and connected appliances. Smart lighting, smart thermostats, and smart speakers have become more common applications in the home, and it’s clear that consumers are interested in innovative applications brought about by technological advances. Imagine if a smart coffee machine could brew a delicious cup of coffee for you based on your own preference of milk and sugar ratios. Alternatively, smart dishwashers can eliminate the need for traditional paper instructions and offer a more intuitive, interactive digital user interface.

Don’t these all sound good? But it will take longer than we expect to get to a fully smart home like this. While the applications for these devices themselves are pretty straightforward, the conservative nature of the industry means there’s still some way to go before we see smart appliances hitting store shelves in real numbers.

That being said, because these applications are so simple, intuitive and broadly appealing to consumers, we expect smart appliances to become more widespread in 2020, although it will take some time before they become mainstream.

Stay tuned for part two of this series, where we will share our tech experts’ predictions on automotive market trends for 2020.