“We’re moving in the cycle of wearables, driveables, flyables and scannables” Mary Meeker says in her Internet Trends report released at the D11 Conference this week.
This is big news for the Internet of Things (IoT) in the same way that Cisco’s recent TV advertising campaign is.
People will notice.
More specifically, Silicon Valley will notice. Many have commented on the relative lack of willingness of Silicon Valley investors to invest in Internet of Things projects on the basis that they are, ‘hardware’. This isn’t entirely fair – SoftTech VC, Foundry Group Kleiner Perkins, Google Ventures, Venrock and True Ventures for example are all high profile investors in valley based IoT companies.
The very mention of something like the Internet of Things from Mary Meeker will put the carnivorous sheep-flock of valley investors on red alert as they adjust their well considered investment theses to include companies that are well placed to be the leaders in the next wave of disruptive innovation. Watch out too for the pivots that companies, previously focused on ad-optimizing web-widgets, will be making to get their company its next round of investment.
