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Smart, connected products are products, assets and other things embedded with processors, sensors, software and connectivity that allow data to be exchanged between the product and its environment, manufacturer, operator/user, and other products and systems. Connectivity also enables some capabilities of the product to exist outside the physical device, in what is known as the product cloud. The data collected from these products can be then analyzed to inform decision-making, enable operational efficiencies and continuously improve the performance of the product. ==Overview== Smart, connected products have three primary components; physical, smart, and connectivity. In Professor Michael Porter ‘s and James Heppelmann’s Harvard Business Review article, “How Smart, Connected Products are Transforming Competition,” they describes the three components as: * Physical – made up of the product’s mechanical and electrical parts. * Smart – made up of sensors, microprocessors, data storage, controls, software, and an embedded operating system with enhanced user interface. * Connectivity – made up of ports, antennae, and protocols enabling wired/wireless connections that serve two purposes, it allows data to be exchanged with the product and enables some functions of the product to exist outside the physical device.〔(How Smart, Connected Products are Transforming Competition ) Harvard Business Review. pp 67〕 Each component expands the capabilities of one another resulting in, “a virtuous cycle of value improvement.”〔(How Smart, Connected Products are Transforming Competition ) Harvard Business Review. pp 67〕 First, the smart components of a product amplify the value and capabilities of the physical components. Then, connectivity amplifies the value and capabilities of the smart components. These improvements include: * Monitoring of the product’s conditions, its external environment, and its operations and usage. * Control of various product functions to better respond to changes in its environment, as well as to personalize the user experience. * Optimization of the product’s overall operations based on actual performance data, and reduction of downtimes through predictive maintenance and remote service. * Autonomous product operation, including learning from their environment, adapting to users’ preferences and self-diagnosing and service.〔(The New Era of Smart, Connected Products Is Changing How Businesses Compete ) Wall Street Journal〕 Smart, connected products and the Internet of Things (IoT): The Internet of Things is the network of physical objects that contain embedded technology to communicate and sense or interact with their internal states or the external environment.〔(Gartner Says the Internet of Things Installed Base Will Grow to 26 Billion Units by 2020 ) Gartner〕 The phrase “Internet of Things” reflects the growing number of smart, connected products and highlights the new opportunities they can represent. The internet, whether involving people or things, is a mechanism for transmitting information. What makes smart, connected products fundamentally different is not the internet, but the changing nature of the ’things.’〔(How Smart, Connected Products are Transforming Competition ) Harvard Business Review. pp 66〕 Once a product is smart and connected to the cloud, the products and services will become part of an interconnected management solution. Companies can evolve from making products, to offering more complex, higher-value offerings within a “system of systems”.〔(Smart Connected Products: Killing Industries, Boosting Innovation ) Wired Magazine〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Smart, Connected Products」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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