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Vodafone reckons it has nailed consumer IoT
Four new connected gadgets, a dedicated SIM and a new consumer sub-brand are intended to showcase Vodafone’s IoT expertise.
Scott Bicheno
November 7, 2017
3 Min Read
Four new connected gadgets, a dedicated SIM and a new consumer sub-brand are intended to showcase Vodafone’s IoT expertise.
The brand is called ‘V by Vodafone’, apparently a somewhat ambitious attempt to align its gadget brand with the fashion industry. Google any letter of the alphabet followed by ‘by’ and the auto-complete will reveal a clothing or fragrance brand already had this bright idea. In fact clothing site Very has already got a ‘V by’ so that could be awkward.
The big idea seems to be to offer a device that comes with a special SIM for Vodafone’s IoT network, thus allowing regular punters to live the IoT dream for the first time. The general theme seems to be to introduce plug-and-play IoT functionality (tracking, remote access via an app, etc) to every-day consumer stuff. Here are the four new shiny things.
V-Auto – The dongle can apparently be easily installed by the end-user and then offers the kind of ‘eCall’ functionality, that automatically makes a call to the car owner if they’re in an accident, that will be manadatory in all new cars sold in the EU from next year. It also enables owners to track their car if it gets nicked and even provides driving performance data if you’re into that sort of thing.
V-Pet uses the mobile network and GPS to track where your pet is and even sends an alert if they stray from a designated area. That cool be pretty cool for seeing what cats get up to. Inevitably is also offers handy health hints to tell you if Fido has been sitting around the house too much.
V-Camera allows continuous remote video monitoring anywhere there is Vodafone coverage. It also alerts you when it detects movement, so you don’t have to constantly stare at your phone and provides seven days of cloud storage for recordings.
V-Bag is an IoT bag clip that, surprise surprise, lets you track what your bag is up to. Are you noticing a trend here? Not only that but it will set off an alert if someone has nicked your bag but you haven’t noticed yet. It does this with the same ‘designated area’ functionality as the cat-tracker, but that doesn’t seem anywhere near as useful in this case.
“V by Vodafone makes it simple to connect a wide range of IoT-enabled devices, helping customers keep everyone and everything that matters to them safe and secure,” said Vodafone Group Chief Exec, Vittorio Colao. “We look forward to applying our world-leading expertise in IoT to help consumers make the most of the next phase of the global digital revolution.”
All this cutting-edge gear is only available to Vodafone customers for now and, on top of the cost of the device itself it will cost them £4 per month to stay connected. That’s likely to put V by Vodafone in the early adopter category, but it’s still not a bad effort at taking on the very tricky consumer IoT market. Vodafone UK seems to be on a bit of a roll at the moment.
Not to be out-done, Orange has coincidentally announced three new connected devices today too. A 360 camera for smartphones, a VR headset and a drone indicate Orange is focused less on IoT than other emerging tech buzzwords.
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