12  IoT Product Explorer

Interactive analysis of real-world IoT products

12.1 Learning Objectives

⏱️ ~8 min | ⭐ Foundational | 📋 P01.C06.U01

By using the IoT Product Explorer, you will be able to:

  • Compare architectures across real products (device ↔︎ edge ↔︎ cloud)
  • Identify trade-offs in connectivity, power, security, and privacy
  • Extract patterns (what succeeds, what fails, and why)
  • Connect products to chapters for deeper study

12.2 Prerequisites

⏱️ ~4 min | ⭐ Foundational | 📋 P01.C06.U02

  • A modern browser with JavaScript enabled
  • Internet access (first load) for d3@7 and Mermaid from CDNs
  • Optional: keyboard navigation (arrows/Enter/Escape)
Tip🎯 Interactive Product Analysis

Explore 10 real-world IoT products through an interactive interface. Search, filter, compare, and learn from successful products and failures. Click any product card to see detailed architecture diagrams, lessons learned, and comprehensive analysis.


12.3 📊 Products Included

10 Real-World IoT Products Analyzed:

Product Category Year Status Key Technology
Estimote Beacon Proximity & Positioning 2013 Legacy BLE iBeacon (3-year battery)
FiLIP Watch Wearables 2013 Legacy GPS + 2G Cellular (Child safety)
Good Night Lamp Communication Devices 2005 Discontinued Cellular M2M (Emotional IoT)
Honda Smart Home Smart Home 2014 Demo Solar + V2H (Zero-net-energy)
Angel Blocks Maker Platforms 2015 Defunct Sub-GHz RF (Unverified claims)
LIFX Smart Lighting Smart Home 2012 Active WiFi 802.11n (No hub required)
Nest Thermostat Smart Home 2011 Active WiFi + Thread (ML-powered)
SmartThings Hub Smart Home 2012 Active Zigbee/Z-Wave/WiFi (Multi-protocol)
Awair Monitor Environmental Monitoring 2015 Active WiFi (5-sensor IAQ)
AliveCor Kardia Healthcare 2012 Active BLE/Ultrasonic (FDA-cleared ECG)

12.4 🎓 Learning Features

Interactive Exploration: 1. Search: Try “BLE”, “GPS”, “cellular”, “battery”, “solar”, or “defunct” 2. Filter by Category: See products grouped by use case 3. Product Cards: Hover for lift animation, click for details 4. Detail Panel: Comprehensive overview + architecture diagrams 5. Architecture Diagrams: Mermaid diagrams showing complete system design

What You’ll Learn: - ✅ Technology Trade-offs: Battery life vs features, range vs power, simplicity vs flexibility - ✅ Design Patterns: BLE broadcast, cellular cloud-centric, V2H energy management - ✅ Success & Failure: Museum-recognized design (Good Night Lamp) vs vaporware (Angel Blocks) - ✅ Real Data: Actual battery life (3 years), range (70m), costs ($30-40/beacon) - ✅ Business Models: Hardware-only, subscription, platform, demonstration


12.5 🚀 Features & Roadmap

Available Now: - ✅ 5-Tab Analysis: Overview, Architecture, Security, Privacy, and Business analysis for each product - ✅ Interactive Search: Search by name, category, technology, or tags - ✅ Category Filtering: Filter by product category - ✅ Mermaid Diagrams: Interactive architecture diagrams with IEEE color scheme - ✅ Keyboard Navigation: Full accessibility with arrow keys, Enter, Escape - ✅ Mobile Responsive: Optimized for all screen sizes

Coming Soon: - 🔜 Comparison Mode: Select 2-4 products for side-by-side analysis - 🔜 Timeline View: See IoT product evolution from 2005-2025 - 🔜 Pattern Explorer: Automatically identify common design patterns - 🔜 Technology Stack View: Group products by primary connectivity - 🔜 Export Features: Download comparisons as CSV/PDF

Try the Explorer: 1. Search for “defunct” to see failed products and learn from their failures 2. Search for “cellular” to compare 3 different cellular IoT approaches 3. Filter by “Smart Home” to see 4 products in this category 4. Click any product → Security or Privacy tabs for detailed analysis 5. Click Business tab to see pricing, competitors, and real deployments

12.6 Summary

The IoT Product Explorer turns product case studies into a searchable, comparable dataset:

  • Real products, real constraints: Compare connectivity, power, and architecture decisions across 10 devices
  • Multi-lens analysis: Review each product through Architecture, Security, Privacy, and Business tabs
  • Learn from outcomes: Contrast successful products with legacy/defunct designs to spot failure patterns
  • Direct chapter integration: Jump from a product to its full written analysis for deeper study

12.7 Knowledge Check

  1. The primary purpose of the IoT Product Explorer is to:

This hub helps you explore real products and then connect architecture, networking, security, privacy, and business decisions back to the chapters.

  1. Which set of tabs reflects the five-lens analysis available for each product?

Each product includes a structured view spanning technical architecture plus security, privacy, and business context.

  1. If you open a product detail panel and want to close it quickly using the keyboard, you should press:

The app supports keyboard accessibility; Escape closes the detail panel.

  1. The “Read Complete Analysis” button is intended to:

Use the explorer for discovery and comparison, then open the full chapter analysis when you want the complete narrative and deeper reasoning.

12.8 What’s Next

  • Pick one product and follow “Read Complete Analysis” to study the full case study chapter
  • Use the Knowledge Map to discover prerequisite chapters related to a product’s connectivity, sensing, and security choices
  • Validate your understanding with Quizzes and capture weak spots in Knowledge Gaps