How We Developed Our First IoT Product

Learn about our journey of creating our first IoT product and discover crucial tips to remember during IoT development.

Favoriot’s First IoT Product After returning from Silicon Valley, we set out to address the issue of senior citizens’ safety using IoT technology. Our solution eventually became our first commercial IoT product, which took almost two years to develop from scratch, starting in April 2017.

Here are some of the key lessons we learned during the creation of our first IoT product. Look at these essential tips to consider when developing your own IoT technology.

Identifying the Problem

We are witnessing an “Aging in place” trend where elderly people stay at home alone or with their spouses or children. While they may live longer due to advancements in healthcare, they may suffer from various health problems such as heart disease, diabetes, or dementia.

Their adult children may be too busy with their jobs and families to keep a constant watch on their elderly parents. In emergencies, such as illness or falls, the elderly may have difficulty calling for help. And due to dementia, they may forget how to return home.

What if we could use technology to continuously monitor their health and safety and provide a simple way to call for help when needed?

Market Potential

The world’s population is aging, and by 2050, it’s estimated that 2 billion people will be over 60, accounting for 20% of the global population. In Malaysia, 3.5 million people, or 7% of the population, are above 65 years old. In countries like Japan, France, Italy, and Germany, over 20% of the population is over 65.

This presents a massive potential market for senior citizen healthcare.

IoT Solution

Our IoT solution aims to monitor the health and safety of senior citizens by using sensors to track their health condition and location to ensure their safety if they get lost or fall.

We opted for a single-device solution for the following reasons:

Easy to carry and manage
It can be monitored everywhere and supports mobility
Contact with the person’s body to monitor health vitals
Easy to trigger an alarm and show the location
Option to make or receive a call
Caretakers or family members can monitor from remote locations

With these requirements, we selected a wearable device with health sensors and GPS.

IoT Solution for Monitoring Elderly

The device can be a smartwatch with built-in sensors to monitor health indicators like steps, heart rate, blood pressure, ECG, and fall detection. GPS is the ideal solution to track location inside or outside the building. The device also has data connectivity to send information to the cloud or caretaker and can feature two-way communication.

The RAQIB device offers peace of mind to families by continuously tracking their elderly parent’s health and location.

Go-to-Market Strategy

Marketing a healthcare solution can be challenging for startups. We initially approached senior citizen care centers, anticipating a B2B market. However, we soon realized that these centers already provide round-the-clock care to their residents, making it an unsuitable demand for our product.

We then pivoted to B2C marketing through social media channels, exhibitions, and conferences. This approach generated some interest and led to inquiries and purchases.

Raqib for Hajj

However, the market was still small, so we pivoted again to a different market segment: Hajj Pilgrims. We approached Hajj and Umrah travel agents to package our product as a value-added service to monitor pilgrims’ health and safety while performing their rituals. But even this B2B model was not attractive enough, so we reverted to B2C, targeting individual Hajj or Umrah pilgrims.