Generalizations about a field as large and diverse as the IoT can be misleading and inaccurate, but some clear macroscopic trends have had an impact on most of its sectors over the last few years. Even IoT sectors more resilient against headwinds, such as manufacturing and engineering where 5G and edge compute are already yielding cost savings and efficiency improvements, have experienced some drag from several factors. One is the Covid-19 pandemic, which provoked semiconductor shortages that plagued many IoT sectors, especially automotive, while also disrupting supply chains in various ways. The war in Ukraine then reinforced some of these problems, while also stoking global inflation by driving up energy and commodity prices, sucking life out of many economies and…