8 Books Every IoT Beginner Should Read

Whether you’re looking for a beginner explanation to IoT, ways you can leverage IoT to benefit your business or a wider look at the future of technology as we know it, we have you covered. This is a list of our 8 best books for IoT beginners and the IoT-curious.

The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future

Kevin Kelley, one of the co-founders of Wired magazine, provides a road map for the future with detailed accounts of the technological trends leading the way. The book is rooted in the core belief that current technology has already shaped our future. Instead of teaching you how to innovate, Kelley explains where innovation will happen and why. 

"Three generations ago, many a tinkerer struck it rich by taking a tool and making an electric version. Take a manual pump; electrify it. Find a hand-wringer washer; electrify it. The entrepreneurs didn't need to generate the electricity; they bought it from the grid and used it to automate the previously manual. Now everything that we formerly electrified we will “cognify.“ There is almost nothing we can think of that cannot be made new, different, or more valuable by infusing it with some extra IQ. In fact, the business plans of the next 10,000 startups are easy to forecast: Take X and add AI. Find something that can be made better by adding online smartness to it."

Available here. 

IoT Inc: How Your Company Can Use the Internet of Things to Win in the Outcome Economy

In IoT Inc, Bruce Sinclair urges the reader not to forget about the most important aspect of IoT, the outcome. What people love the most about any IoT application is what the products do and the results they deliver. Most businesses lose sight of the customer needs. Sinclair will refocus your attention on your customer and teach you how to position your company within the IoT landscape.

“IoT isn’t a new business trend. It’s the new way of business. Period. The IoT wave is heading for your industry. You can either meet it head-on, and ride it to success, or you can turn your back and let it swamp you.”

Available here.

Building the Internet of Things

If there is one thing that this book makes very clear, it is that no one can afford to ignore IoT. Focusing on the business implications of IoT, Maciej Kranz describes the sheer impact, spread, and opportunities arising every day in the Internet of Things. Readers will walk away with a solid understanding of current IoT Applications and how to create a comprehensive approach for their own business’s IoT efforts.

"These Applications, and the business value propositions they produce, drive the connectivity, not vice versa. We aren't connecting things just for the exercise; serious value and benefits are at stake."

Available here. 

Race Against the Machine

Race Against the Machine is a more general look at technological innovation, unemployment, and the economy. MIT Economists Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee believe that the digital revolution accelerates at an exponential pace, rapidly encroaching on skills that used to belong to humans alone. The economic impact of technology has not only caused unemployment, but also a new distribution of wealth. These theories are expanded upon in their second book, The Second Machine Age. 

“When significant numbers of people see their standards of living fall despite an ever-growing economic pie, it threatens the social contract of the economy and even the social fabric of society.”

Available here.

Internet of Things: Principles and Paradigms

This book will teach you the fundamentals of connected products. From describing the different architectures for managing IoT platforms to providing insight on trust, security, and privacy in IoT environments, every reader will walk away with a deep understanding of the main concepts and features of the IoT paradigm.

"The Internet of Things paradigm promises to make "things" including consumer electronic devices or home appliances, such as medical devices, fridge, cameras, and sensors, part of the Internet environment. This paradigm opens the doors to new innovations that will build novel type of interactions among things and humans, and enables the realization of smart cities, infrastructure, and services for enhancing the quality of life and utilization of resources."

Available here. 

Getting Started with the Internet of Things: Connecting Sensors and Microcontrollers to the Cloud

For any engineer looking to build their first IoT solution, Getting Started with the Internet of Things is the perfect guide. In this book, you’ll learn to program embedded devices using the .NET Micro Framework and the Netduino Plus board and then connect your devices to the internet with Pachube.

"This book is intended for anyone with at least basic programming skills in an object-oriented language, as well as an interest in sensors, micro-controllers, and web technologies."

Available here. 

Enterprise IoT: Strategies & Best Practices for Connected Products & Services

This practical guide on IoT focuses solely on enterprise applications. Filled with expert interviews, case study analysis, and the author’s own experience, the book provides detailed explanations focused on the planning and implementation of an IoT project.

"The important and potentially huge impact that IoT-based servitization Applications will have on existing organizational structures should not be underestimated. Transforming a large service and support organization to make efficient use of remote services such as remote condition monitoring and remote maintenance will unquestionably require significant organizational change."

Available here. 

The Ultimate Introduction to IoT

When the Leverege team started IoT For All just over a year ago, it was because we saw a knowledge gap and believed that IoT could not reach its full potential unless the industry is made accessible to all. So, on top of creating IoT For All to educate people on IoT-enabled technologies and their impact, we wrote an in-depth book covering the foundational knowledge–hardware, UX, connectivity, and more– that you need to get up to speed in this rapidly changing and advancing industry.

"The Internet of Things will allow our world to increasingly shape itself to our needs and our wants, creating a better experience. Rather than just passively providing information and reacting to our inputs, much of the value of IoT will come from anticipating and addressing needs automatically."

Available here.

Looking for more info to get up to speed on IoT? Check out What is IoT - A Simple Explanation of the Internet of Things.

Originally published on August 8, 2018. Updated on January 29, 2020.