It is best to learn the foundations of IoT first and also Computer Networks, Cloud, Security and the likes. Then programming to which ever you'll find yourself comfortable. Then after that you can penetrate a deeper understanding of how the following are being implemented in the society.

Most of your questions are already answered. But the interesting thing in your question is "dynamics of IoT platform markets", would you please describe your intention with more details?

Hello Cristian Randieri Sir,

your question interesting, I did a quick literature review (online) and in this, I added my opinion.

I also agreed with Ali Rezaee Sir, I found all this question was already answered in many websites but Finding right answer from them is difficult because their every Author has his own opinion based on his expertise and survey. just we need to consider it as per our condition, application and expertise.

Sorry, this post is very long.

Sorry this post is very long.

If you’re starting from scratch, you might be able to get further quicker by selecting a platform that can cover device management, some network management, and some application enablement. However, if you’ve already built something or are trying to piece together disparate platforms, managing an IoT platform with overlap can make integration more difficult.

Consider this scenario: One solution you like may have a better user interface and not do as much on the device management side. But in order to utilize the device management piece, you have to use the less-sophisticated user interface. This kind of trade-off may be a deal breaker!

Therefore, it’s extremely important to brainstorm what your complete IoT system will look like at scale and select which features are most important to you first—then decide what platform type you need.

1. IoT Platform and types

An IoT platform is a multi-layer technology that enables straightforward provisioning, management, and automation of connected devices within the Internet of Things universe. It basically connects your hardware, however diverse, to the cloud by using flexible connectivity options, enterprise-grade security mechanisms, and broad data processing powers. For developers, an IoT platform provides a set of ready-to-use features that greatly speed up development of applications for connected devices as well as take care of scalability and cross-device compatibility.

Thus, an IoT platform can be wearing different hats depending on how you look at it. It is commonly referred to as middleware when we talk about how it connects remote devices to user applications (or other devices) and manages all the interactions between the hardware and the application layers. It is also known as a cloud enablement platform or IoT enablement platform to pinpoint its major business value, that is empowering standard devices with cloud-based applications and services. Finally, under the name of the IoT application enablement platform, it shifts the focus to being a key tool for IoT developers[1].

At a high level, an Internet of Things (IoT) platform is the support software that connects edge hardware, access points, and data networks to other parts of the value chain (which are generally the end-user applications). IoT platforms typically handle ongoing management tasks and data visualization, which allow users to automate their environment. You can think of these platforms as the middleman between the data collected at the edge and the user-facing SaaS or mobile application.

Types

1.1- Application enablement and development: This includes platforms that offer templates, modules, or widget-based frameworks in order to create actual end-user applications. These platforms can quickly turn data into either intelligence or action. This is a big space with all kinds of players, from players like Oracle, to Wot.io, to ThingWorx.

1.2- Network, data, and subscriber management: In the wireless carrier and mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) space, these platforms are trying to simplify connecting cellular M2M data, so you don’t have to build much of the data infrastructure behind it. Cisco and Aeris, for example, do network management and device management, while Jasper and Wyless do more pure network management.

1.3- Device management: These platforms are more about monitoring, troubleshooting, and administrating the provisioning and health of the endpoints. This is more typical of a lot of hardware in the IoT space. Digi and Intel both offer pure device cloud management

2. choose the right IoT platform

The Internet of Things is an inherently complex networking environment, and thus, the need to automate data tasks at scale has thrust a number of IoT platform players into the market. The kind of platform a company needs is a more difficult question to answer, because it depends on several factors. These factors include whether specific hardware, protocols, real-time access, custom reports, and more are needed[2].

3. IoT platforms create value in connectivity

Although the Internet of Things (IoT) is early stages of the maturity curve, more than 70 percent of enterprises are already collecting information for IoT initiatives, according to a study conducted by 451 Research. Companies that had launched IoT projects expected their IoT spending to grow 33 percent on average over the next 12 months. The respondents in the study were IT buyers from about 1,000 organizations worldwide.

The IoT market includes three major components: physical products, service providers and software companies. The full platform stack includes applications, analytics, storage platforms, middleware and communications. The IoT is, in fact, a complex ecosystem of products and services.

“In 2016, Gartner expected spending on IoT services to reach $235 billion, an increase of 22 percent over 2015. The market, it predicted, would be fueled by the 6.4 billion connected things expected to be used globally in 2016, which is an increase of 30 percent over 2015. But future growth will be even greater, with 20.8 billion things in use by 2020. The installed base will initially be dominated by consumer IoT connections, at least in terms of number. Commercial connections, including both generic and industry-specific, will account for only about half as many connections as the consumer market. However, given the potential value of the IoT to businesses that range from utilities to insurance and medical applications, those markets are likely to ultimately exceed consumer markets in dollars. So the connected devices are here and the spending is taking place, but what is happening to the data? The data that comes from the sensors, devices and equipment needs to be captured, stored and analyzed for it to be useful. Numerous IoT platforms have emerged as a means of doing that; a report from IoT Analytics estimates that the current market includes 360 different IoT platforms. It predicts that the worldwide market for IoT platforms will grow from $298 million in 2015 to $1.6 billion by 2021. Although that figure is relatively small compared to the spending on services, the report notes that platforms are “one of the fastest growing segments,” with a projected growth rate of 33 percent[3].

4. IoT Use Cases

The industries with the most use cases are healthcare, manufacturing, oil and gas, and automotive. The most frequent applications are prevention and prediction, optimization, and autonomy.

4.1- Oil and gas customers are able to optimize placement of drill heads in real-time to optimize output of the well thereby increasing productivity and revenue.

4.2-Manufacturing 4.0 where Qualcomm is measuring factory floor conditions to optimize yield management of chip production.

4.3- Automotive embedded technology in cars to transmit data in intervals, as well as the technology for autonomous vehicles. 

4.4- Autonomous vehicles – how to drive, insight on better routes with less risk and greater safety.

4.5- Phillips is using IoT in MRI machines so they are informed when the machines need to be tuned. They are also aggregating MRI images and analyzing with ML for disease detection.

4.6- Healthcare – provide direct connection to equipment (MRIs) and use AI for the initial triage to diagnose problems and reduce the requirement of putting someone on site by 40% thereby reducing response time, improving customer satisfaction. Connect to the knowledge base for triage.

4.7- Healthcare companies are streaming EMR data and using ML to predict health of patients that are potential for code blue or sepsis shock and send a nurse to visit.

4.8- Utilities have smart meters which enable the analysis of data. PG&E tracks all pipes and information with regards to geolocation and time. Space and time are core differentiators.

4.9- Aqua Core smart buildings monitoring HVAC, lighting, elevators. As lighting moves to LED new controls and telemetry to measure power draw and monitor for maintenance/ replacement.

4.10- Farming uses extreme distribution of sensors to a waypoint to the internet to the data center.

4.11- Power generation company uses local command and control with availability at the corporate site. Collect data at individual sites, Downsample data back to HQ for trend analysis and a macro view.

4.12- Telecom provider has digital touchpoints into customers. Has 700,000 unfulfilled service requests to connect unconnected devices. Use crowdsource marketplace of freelancers putting Uber-like platform in place increasing customer satisfaction and an additional revenue stream. Addressed the needs of the client base.

4.13- Autonomous lawn mowers, floor cleaners, Nest thermostats, Bigbelly smart city solutions, and John Deere. Intellect at the edge with an understanding of how to bring all of the plumbing together.

4.14- Connected cars, industrial automation, medical devices, smart TVs.

4.15- Connected weather network in Houston monitored the 66 inches of rain that fell during hurricane Harvey and also found that the wind never blew harder than 43 miles per hour so no homes were able to make insurance claims for excessive wind damage. Monitored hailstorm in Denver that caused $1.4 billion in damage with 4,200 hailstones with an average size of 2.5 inches. Able to feed this data into the algorithm to see where the damage occurred, send out adjusters, and uncover fraud. Understory is able to save insurance companies 15 to 30% per storm. We help agriculture increase crop yields. Provide real-time weather alerts including temperature and wind data to support energy and utility companies.

4.16- Supply chains – all products, palettes, containers, and transportation has geolocation streams letting you know where everything is so the supply chain can be optimized, late arrivals can be predicted, replenished and allocated[4].

5. The IoT platform market

Before wrapping up we look at the IoT platform market. There are hundreds of players in this space now, some of them admittedly rather self-proclaimed IoT platform vendors.

although the real IoT platforms have many functions in common (the core IoT platform features) but there are quite some differences in the various offerings with sometimes very different features. No IoT platform is the same. However, the term IoT platform is also used for many types of platforms. And remember the market dynamics.

Some more examples of companies and solutions which are probably better known (the vendors at least), although this isn’t some judgement on quality of the many others out there: Amazon (AWS IoT), AT&T (AT&T IoT Platform), Bosch (Bosch IoT Suite), Ericsson (Application Platform for IoT), Gemalto (SensorLogic), HPE (HPE Universal IoT Platform), IBM (Watson IoT Platform), Microsoft (Azure: Stream Analytics, IoT Hub, IoT Suite), PTC (ThingWorx Technology Platform), SAP (SAP HANA Cloud Platform for the Internet of Things), relayr and Software AG (Cumulocity IoT).

5.1 The IoT platform market challenges

one of the major issues with IoT platforms is that there simple are far too many and that the young market is still taking shape with the mentioned mergers and acquisitions, essential ecosystem partnerships (strengthening offers for the customer who wants an end-to-end solution, not the pain of acquiring or building a tool) and undoubtedly some players poised to either go very vertical or get out sooner or later

5.2- IoT platform growth and spending

MachNation is one of many who studies the IoT platform market with its annual ScoreCards. According to MachNation, total IoT platform revenue will reach USD3.3 billion in 2018, a growth of 89 percent in comparison with 2017, 2018 IoT platform revenue will reach USD3.3 billion with increased purchasing from enterprises in manufacturing, automotive, logistics/distribution, utility and smart cities sectors

Using an application enablement platform, MachNation says, among others, leads to a faster time to market; ensures a high-quality, reliable, secure offering; and enables enterprises to build competitive advantage in their markets the company says. IoT application enablement platforms reduce development time and costs.

In a previous edition of the report MachNation expected IoT platform revenue to reach USD2.0 billion in 2017. That was a whopping increase of 116 percent in comparison with 2016. In that edition MachNation also expected global IoT application enablement and device management revenue to reach $83.4 billion by 2025.

2018 update it seems that growth on the longer term is somewhat slower than previously expected, which is in line with revised IoT 2018 spending forecasts by IDC. Nevertheless, it clearly shows an acceleration through 2025 as organizations increase their investments in IoT deployments[5].

Thanks

Reference

1. kaaproject

2.link Lab

3. kmworld

4. dzone

5. i-scoop