With the 600th episode, The Peggy Smedley Show has been an economic, cultural trends, and educational tech leader, partnering with a host of individuals, governments, and businesses to create positive results for more than a million listeners globally.
With a compendium of episodes, The Peggy Smedley Show has covered a plethora of topics in the world of digital disruption from the IoT (Internet of Things), AI (artificial intelligence) machine learning, big data, cybersecurity, blockchain, robotics, healthcare, and so much more in a variety of vertical markets.
I am very proud to say the broadcast has been a vital cog in disseminating essential information about the digital revolution in a very unique way every Tuesday. As a result, the weekly show has allowed me the opportunity to interview some of the most interesting guests in the tech world.
For more than a decade, the radio show and this column afforded me the luxury to interview public figures, celebrities, astronauts, professors, entrepreneurs, and the movers and doers who are making positive disruption occur.
Perhaps, more importantly, the numbers tell how the IoT itself evolved and how digital disruption has blossomed into a more creative, innovative, and visionary industry.
Consider this, at the start of 2010, the CTA (Consumer Technology Assn.), which was the CEA (Consumer Electronics Assn.), was stating that smartphone sales—which again was all driven by Apple—would soar to nearly 31% comparing from the previous year. And it was also saying that by 2011, more than 66 million smartphones would ship to dealers. It was also stating that two years later we would be seeing 19.2 million ereaders in the hands of consumers.
The most recent retail numbers from CTA are forecasting smartphone sales to be at more than $80 billion in revenue and almost 170.7 million units. We’ve gone from million to billions.
And as most readers know, the devices being referenced are those that are machines that have the ability to communicate data, connecting people with devices, networks, and everyday objects, while interpreting much-needed information that can be acted upon in a timely manner. These are the things that are considered connected IoT devices.
Now looking at current 2019 numbers even more, smart homes are predicted to reach $4.6 billion in revenue, smartwatches at $4.7 billion, and new in-vehicle car technology are expected to top $17 billion.
Since the show was first launched in 2008, there has been tremendous change in the Internet of Things industry. In fact, it wasn’t even called that. A decade ago, the industry was talking about M2M (machine-to-machine) technology, not IoT.
In fact, the predecessor to Connected World magazine was M2M magazine. At that time, there was a handful of people in the industry who were working really hard to come up with a term that described smart devices, machines, and systems that were collecting and transmitting decision-enhancing data. In time, more people started to understand the idea behind the growing M2M space. It was challenging to get people on the same page, thus the idea of launching a radio show and a podcast, with a tagline, “The Voice of M2M” emerged.
The broadcast was the perfect place for people in the industry to come together and talk about the trends. Having a magazine, a broadcast, and a website dedicated to M2M was a huge help in getting this industry up and running and getting everyone talking about connected things.
Since day one, the focus has been on informing and educating the space about the digital revolution. So, even when the “space” was in flux … and even before it had a name, the mission has not changed.
Today, the show talks about things like AI and machine learning, and how these emerging technologies are impacting connected things like blockchain, deep learning, and 5G.
Perhaps that’s what makes the broadcast so compelling, there is so much technology to talk about. Just imagine what the next 600 episodes will bring, as technology continues to change rapidly.
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