Smart Shoes

Is your business ready for the “internet of things”?

TAKE A LOOK AROUND. Chances are you see at least one digital device: your smartphone, your laptop, maybe your tablet. What about your shoe? It might not be connected to the internet now, but a time when unseen computers are attached to objects as basic as your sneaker is right around the corner.

The “internet of things” involves tiny computers attached to ordinary objects. Because computers with wireless capability are cheaper than ever, the price of connecting other, simpler objects is, too—tech magazines recently got very excited about designs for a Wi-Fi–enabled toaster. Cisco Systems predicts that 50 billion objects could be connected to communications networks by 2020.

Technology companies are getting ready for this new age, but manufacturers should stay on their toes as well, says Marshall Van Alstyne, a professor of information systems and a dean’s research fellow. Van Alstyne explains in MIT Technology Review that as ordinary products connect to the internet, their manufacturers may be unfamiliar with the economics of the information businesses they enter. Making a shoe is much different than making a shoe that communicates. Not to mention, these types of items could become valuable for the new services they provide, rather than their original function.

“You might find the data,” Van Alstyne says, “is more valuable than the shoe.”