GE's Predix Is Heavy on Marketing, but Light on Capabilities

Predix Marketing Is Ahead of Its Technical Development, Forcing GE to Lean on PTC ThingWorx Technology to Deliver to Customers, Says Lux Research


BOSTON, MA--(Marketwired - Jun 30, 2016) - General Electric's tie-up with Internet of Things (IoT) peer PTC was driven by its need for advanced technology that is readily available while the smaller firm sought to leverage GE's massive marketing campaign for its Predix platform, according to Lux Research.

The two companies are early leaders in IoT, offering truly comprehensive solutions that connect assets to the Internet in valuable ways. But the two, puzzlingly, went ahead with a partnership despite strikingly similar platforms, and heavy overlap in architecture and feature sets.

"Predix is not as fully developed as GE represents it to be, has minimal market penetration, and has not been battle-tested at scale," said Isaac Brown, Lux Research Analyst and lead author of the report titled, "A Tale of Two IoT Titans: The Curious Case of the GE-PTC Partnership."

"In contrast, the PTC solution has millions of connected devices across hundreds of scale customers, and can provide GE with the capabilities it needs to put its money where its mouth is," he added.

Lux Research analysts studied the GE-PTC partnership, as well as the core strengths of each company. Among their findings:

  • ThingWorx is a key Predix enabler. The ThingWorx platform enables rapid development of applications. Despite Predix claiming to have developed this exact capability, GE has started rolling out ThingWorx to its own factories and is reselling it to customers.

  • Predix is far-reaching but has a way to go. GE's Predix platform is best seen as a fledgling startup, but endowed with the potential to grow into something far bigger than ThingWorx. Predix's full development is still seen taking between three and five years.

  • IoT is big enough for more players. GE and PTC are two of the biggest names in the game but they are, by no means, the only players. While the two companies go farther than most in providing end-to-end solutions, no single vendor can provide all the tools for enterprise deployments.

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Lux Research, Inc.
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