Sprint’s Recent Successes Highlight Importance of a Multipronged Strategic Approach to IoT

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2Q 2019 | IN-5515

Over the past year, Sprint has focused on leveraging the SoftBank Group’s vast assets to more effectively deliver end-to-end “IoT-in-a-box” solutions. In November 2018, Sprint launched its Curiosity IoT platform which it built with Ericsson and Packet, a SoftBank-owned cloud and edge computing infrastructure provider. Sprint’s Curiosity platform helps expand its global reach to operators outside of the United States and also provides Ericsson access to deeply embedded U.S. infrastructure. For Sprint, though, Curiosity is part of a larger multi-pronged strategic approach to leverage its SoftBank assets and partnerships and focus on developing solutions and services targeted at specific IoT end-users.

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Sprint's Multipronged Approach

NEWS


Over the past year, Sprint has focused on leveraging the SoftBank Group’s vast assets to more effectively deliver end-to-end “IoT-in-a-box” solutions. In November 2018, Sprint launched its Curiosity IoT platform which it built with Ericsson and Packet, a SoftBank-owned cloud and edge computing infrastructure provider. Sprint’s Curiosity platform helps expand its global reach to operators outside of the United States and also provides Ericsson access to deeply embedded U.S. infrastructure. For Sprint, though, Curiosity is part of a larger multi-pronged strategic approach to leverage its SoftBank assets and partnerships and focus on developing solutions and services targeted at specific IoT end-users.

In May 2018, Sprint announced the launch of its Sprint IoT Factory, an online marketplace offering enterprise end-to-end IoT solutions. Sprint joined rival carrier AT&T in addition to other companies along the IoT value chain such as PTC ThingWorx, IBM, Dell, and Libelium, each of which had already launched their own respective IoT marketplaces. While it may have seemed as though Sprint’s foray into the crowded IoT-marketplaces market was late, Sprint claimed that the largest driving portion to launch its IoT Factory was that there was a gap in the marketplace of what its competitors were not doing. Sprint was right. By offering simple and fully end-to-end IoT vertical solutions that work out of the box as well as a platform that enables developers to create innovative IoT applications, Sprint has continued to focus on targeting the small and medium business users who want the ease of buying a prepackaged IoT solution for the cost of piecing together a DIY solution.

IoT in a Box

IMPACT


Sprint’s Curiosity platform and IoT Factory integrate together to help further drive value for enterprise end users. IoT marketplaces originally evolved from the pain point of the scattered and fragmented IoT landscape, which comprised a diverse array of suppliers that offered a variety of complex components and different flavors of solutions. These solutions require the seamless integration of multiple hardware, software, and connectivity components in order to successfully deploy, which continues to be a resource-intensive endeavor for many enterprises. These marketplaces largely serve to simplify the IoT project implementation process for enterprises, taking the friction out of the development process by partnering with other companies to create a suite of cohesive ecosystem offerings.

However, even with many of these IoT marketplaces, there are so many various tools and components and widgets that there is still a sense of choice overload. A lot of the current suppliers have simplified the solution selection process to a point but have created marketplaces that serve as a sort of scattered microcosm of the overall fragmented IoT ecosystem. Sprint’s IoT Factory is different in that it not only allows end users access to 23 fully end-to-end IoT solutions, such as restaurant and food services temperature monitoring, energy management, and vehicle tracking, but also it shows the initial cost of the solution in addition to the monthly recurring cost. End users are able to compare the cost of different end-to-end IoT solutions immediately and don’t have to stitch different solution components together or underestimate the total solution cost.

All Eyes on the Developer

RECOMMENDATIONS


While there is a huge focus on the buyers of these solutions, Sprint’s focus is on providing a platform and ecosystem for developers to innovate and build on. Within a month of its launch, Sprint claimed that 500,000 developers had already accessed its IoT Factory, with the end goal being that developers who build on the platform can then sell their solution through the factory. There is something that Sprint’s marketplace offers these developers that they haven’t been offered before. For some developers, it could just be a chance to see and test solutions on a new platform in a new ecosystem, but for others there is a clear economic incentive for them to create and sell their solutions in Sprint’s ecosystem. The vast majority of application development platform and service provider solutions are aimed at developers working on larger enterprise or industrial applications, and Sprint’s ecosystem allows them access to markets they may not have had access to in the past.    

Sprint is focusing its sights on the largely untapped small and medium-sized business market for IoT solutions. Sprint is betting big on IoT and 5G, and the investments into and the eventual successes of these technologies are increasingly interlinked. As Sprint overhauls its 5G network, it is architecting a virtualized IoT core network and a distributed edge network. Ivo Rook, Sprint’s Senior Vice President of IoT, has stated that Sprint’s goal is to grow its IoT business to generate US$1 billion in revenue annually. It is not clear exactly how Sprint will reach that billion-dollar goal, or when that goal will be reached, but Sprint’s efforts and successes so far show that, in the crowded IoT landscape, there is still space for them.

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