Next year we’ll continue to see a dramatic shift in manufacturing, as both industrial and consumer-based manufacturers move from solely selling products via one-time transactions to selling recurring services to customers, underscored by IoT.

The more a customer uses a service, the more manufacturers are able to further understand customer preferences and usage patterns. This can help to establish closer relationships with customers and enable manufacturers to build an optimised experience, bringing out the true value of their device or machinery.

In the next 10 years we predict that the service itself will be the core selling point for manufacturers. Products themselves will become free, while recurring services become the basis for monetising and building loyalty among a growing customer base.