Are you a design engineer with a great new idea for an IoT or Wi-Fi device but frustrated with the basic component options available to build out your product? Finding the right supplier to partner with makes a big difference when choosing parts for your new design. Instead of simply offering off-the-shelf solutions for your project, a good vendor can help design in custom components that offer reliability, consistency, and system-level savings. The right supplier provides expertise to help refine your solution and guidance to navigate a changing regulatory landscape. But partnering with a supplier that checks all of these boxes isn't always an easy task.
Here are a few recommended strategies to consider when searching for the right wireless partner for your next big idea.
Consider More Than Price
Traditionally, vendors are sourced through a bid-like RFP process that typically involves evaluating various suppliers for a variety of requirements. It's common to request proposals from multiple vendors to compare their ability to deliver components based on your performance, design, form specifications and price. While price is a significant factor, it's also important to review manufacturing capabilities, breadth of product, global footprint and differentiation mechanisms. Including these additional aspects in your review supports an effective, well-rounded partnership for a more successful product development lifecycle.
As part of an early engagement, try discussing the unique problems your design idea solves for customers and the greater market potential. Wireless suppliers who see that potential may be more inclined to help offer cost effective solutions and additional resources to support device optimization and differentiation. This approach may also enable system-level designs that offer more mutually-beneficial price points and production solutions.
One opportunity for Wi-Fi device designers to consider is working with established broadband service providers that are seeking to add IoT capabilities to their portfolio. In order to remain relevant and capture an edge in the market, technologies like Bluetooth, Zigbee and Thread are being adopted faster than ever before. By serving in a more consultative role to help them solve the coexistence challenges inherent with these IoT standards, designers and their strategic partners can work together to develop innovative, high-demand services for the smart home and business environment. Partnering at this level provides service providers, component manufacturers, and product designers incentive to work together toward a more complete end solution that benefits all parties.
Open the Door for Design Options
Innovating around a checklist of specific design needs for an existing RF device is a great place to start when creating a new wireless solution. However, by involving additional creative partners early on in the design cycle, new directions may emerge that weren't initially considered. For example, using a larger technology roadmap, and aligning with the system architecture team, or requesting design input from a strategic supply partner can support engineering solutions with greater impact. Discussing production implications – like material availability, time-to-market and supply chain challenges – with a component partner increases collaboration and improves success for your overall business goals. This meeting of the minds, often referred to as a Technology Summit, is a key part of developing an effective relationship between internal and external teams that can lead to improved designs with increased integration, faster time-to-market and a lower bill of materials.
Balancing supply sourcing, component quality and engineering innovation for a higher, system-level perspective can contribute to producing devices that consumers desire at price-points that drive demand and business growth.
Start Small and Grow
System-level solutions are important, but what if you're not there yet? At the early concept stage, consider working with multiple component providers to become part of a reference design. While this process can be tedious at times, competing with other designers to win the referenced solution can often pay off in the long run with much-needed brand recognition. As a player in the general reference platform, conversations with other lead companies looking to fulfill their reference design requirements will increase with visibility. Even if you aren't selected for the initial design win, there are other companies watching that may like what you have to offer.
Another approach is to consider the customer's customer – broadband or cable providers – and influencing product choices at their level. Providers may be more willing to take on risk to create differentiation from their counterparts. If your company can provide a product that provides a competitive advantage, they may become a powerful advocate – requesting specific requirements to meet their needs and tapping your company to be their fulfillment solution. Working with service providers from this perspective can not only fill a market void but create opportunity to win reference designs.
Innovate Against the Odds
With more and more opportunities in the area of IoT, device designers face heavy competition to develop unique solutions in sleek and small form factors. This challenge comes with varying and new mechanical issues inherent in creating products that have both form and function. Already, there are millions of products flooding the market – from smart watches that sense blood pressure, heart rate and perspiration, to whole home solutions that manage lights, entertainment, energy consumption and refill your groceries. Coming up with a new idea in this connected environment of the future can be an exciting but daunting task.
One strategy to help improve the odds of creating a hit product is monitoring industry trends and anticipating the needs of coming changes in the market. Instead of focusing primarily on improving an existing device, collaborate with organizations like the Wi-Fi Alliance or IEEE. Discussing future standards and developing products that can support and influence technologies to come may give you an edge over other designers. Shedding light on potential gaps in the market and building solutions that solve them can present opportunities to partner with component manufacturers from a research and development standpoint – working to stay ahead of the curve and disrupting the market with powerful new ideas for tomorrow's hyper-connected world.
Think of the revolutionary concept of wearable devices. Not too long ago, items like fitness monitors and smart watches were relegated to the pages of science-fiction novels. Today, they've become mainstream, offering vast new opportunities for further conceptual development and new implementations as technology providers rush to compete for space in this emerging market. With the refinement and adoption of the Internet of Things, what will our devices look like in 5- or 10-years' time? And what sort of infrastructure, tools, and service will be needed to support these creations?
The future is yours to build and a solid vendor partnership can play an important role in making your next big idea a reality. Working with a strategic partner to generate the right technology at the right time is key. Remember when determining who to partner with, that price isn't everything. Good vendors may cost more at an individual component level but can provide savings and increased revenue over the entire cycle of product development and production. Involving them from the early design stage will provide opportunities for additional innovation and process improvements. If you're just starting out, consider developing relationships with multiple manufacturers and competing for some design wins. Even if you don't land one right away, being active in the design community is an effective way to network and learn from other companies that have been successful. Finally, be future-oriented and innovate toward Wi-Fi standards yet to come. Even though we're just starting to tap the potential of the IoT, competing in this market is challenging and those that keep their focus ahead will not only successfully solve the problems of today, but lead the market with the cutting-edge products of tomorrow.