IoT business model
The way a company earns money from a connected product, for example by selling hardware, charging subscriptions for services, or being paid for measured outcomes.
The hardware-only model, where the device is sold once and the connectivity and cloud become a cost for the vendor forever, has sunk many connected products. Alternatives include a service subscription on top of the device, device as a service where the customer rents the whole package, data or analytics as a product, and outcome-based pricing where the vendor is paid for the result, such as uptime or energy saved.
The choice has engineering consequences. A subscription model needs billing, device identity and a way to disable service; an outcome model needs measurement the customer trusts. It also shapes total cost of ownership for the buyer and determines who bears the cost when a cellular network is retired or a cloud platform changes its pricing.
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