The idea of creating better cities is as old as human settlement. Smart cities is our latest iteration, amidst the Fourth Industrial Revolution, now that we have exponentially more data and computing power available affordably. This article will focus on illuminating three counterintuitive trends I have observed with smart cities.

Trend 1: Cheap sensors are not enough

There is a widely ingrained belief that having cheap sensors means we will be able to deploy great products and services to manage water, energy or traffic in our cities. Indeed, the cost of sensors has more than halved in a decade but what hasn’t changed yet is the actual placement of these sensors into the end devices. So if you are trying to do vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) communication, outside of a few highly specialized environments, you simply don’t have enough sensors on the road to be able to do anything meaningful.

Even if you are a well-capitalized company you may face the chasm of adoption, like the cautionary tale of iBeacons. Anyone wishing to innovate within smart cities needs to contend that creating highly specialized environments may actually be a precondition, and potentially pushing them through policy a postcondition.

Amit Garg, Principal, Samsung NEXT Ventures

Trend 2: Be iterative & leapfrog

Leapfrog approaches are the stuff that innovators, especially in Silicon Valley, talk about. Take a radically different approach and disrupt this industry, so goes the mantra. When it comes to smart cities I think nothing could be further from truth. Our technology progresses often much faster than our ability to adapt to them and when it comes to adjusting to new ways of living, potentially even relocating, it just adds a significant barrier.

Case in point, the successful smart city projects are being incubated in vibrant places with a long-standing culture of innovation, whether it be Singapore or Songdo right outside of Seoul. Starting from scratch on the other hands has had setbacks, whether championed by a strong government in Masdar City or a powerful corporation in Celebration, USA. I believe iterative approaches are the way to go ie incremental improvements in a city’s infrastructure rather than drastic overhauls.

Trend 3: You do not need scale

We live in an increasingly urban world — 2007 is widely seen as the year when for the first time in history there were more humans living in cities than in rural areas. But the trend is hyper-urbanization, with people concentrating even more in a few cities, and most of those mega cities increasingly in Asia and Africa.

This means that if you are developing an innovation around smart cities you may not need to get to scale in hundreds of cities, just a few markets might actually do it. In fact, if you can get an innovation working fully even in one mega city you may create a hugely successful company with the due caveat that a single point of failure, especially in an area rife with policy, is a high risk.

The author is currently a Principal at Samsung NEXT Ventures, which houses our early-stage investment arm, headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley. I focus on software, especially Internet & consumer technologies, investing $250K to $3M in seed, series A or B, and helping them partner with Samsung to grow and make a meaningful difference in people’s lives.

As the smart city movement grows around the world, a new study sees Asia emerging as the global smart city leader of the future.

A recent Government Technology  white paper “Evolution of Smart Cities and Connected Communities.” The study was co-sponsored by the Consumer Technology Association and the United Parcel Service (UPS).

The paper focused on rise in worldwide smart city projects, which rose 38% to more than 235 initiatives in 2016 from 170 at the end of 2013. In terms of market value, smart cities jumped from $14.85 billion in 2015 to a predicted value of $34.35 billion by 2020, representing a compound annual growth rate of over 18%.

The paper found that a key driver of smart cities growth was the ongoing trend of global urbanization.

“With 70% of the world’s population forecast to live in cities by 2050, the need for sustainable, livable world cities is essential for a prosperous future,” said the report.

One of the more interesting findings of the research was that Asia, not America, is most likely to emerge as the region leading global smart city development.

Asia’s rosy smart city outlook is largely due to the three factors: pressing urban needs of its population centers; the tech readiness of these cities; and strong government support.

The paper noted that Asia is moving quickly into a leadership position with smart cities due to a steady stream of government investments.

India has a lot of action

India is developing an astonishing 100 new smart cities, while converting 500 other urban areas into smart cities. And China is well on the bandwagon as well, having launched 285 smart city related projects.

David Roegge, UPS’ director of high-tech segment marketing, said that he was not surprised that the report found smart cities were growing strongly in Asia.

He said that many Asian cities are building smart cities from scratch, compared to U.S. cities that are saddled with the costly chore of upgrading legacy infrastructure.

“In some of the Asian areas, India for example, they don’t necessarily need to overhaul their infrastructure, so that gives them an advantage on the speed side,” said Roegge.

Rather than focus on the disruptive and competitive nature of new technology, New York’s smart city czars are emphasizing collaboration with business and other smart cities.

City technology leaders spoke at a recent event hosted by Brooklyn’s Urban-X accelerator for connected city startups.

Representing the city were Chief Technology Officer Miguel Gamiño Jr and Chief Digital Officer Sree Sreenivasan.

See also: Smart city investment opportunities could top $1.6 trillion

They discussed how city governments are shedding their slow moving reputation when it comes to developing smart city initiatives.

Unlike the ultra-competitive private sector, Gamiño said New York City’s government has the latitude to perceive other smart cities as potential partners not as threats. And this collaborative approach has proven to have enhanced government innovation.

Sreenivasan picked up the thread by highlighting New York’s embrace of the open data movement, with the city releasing over 1,600 data sets to date. He said that this has enabled city governments to share best practices and even source code between them.

“The way we’re going to do this is to partner with great cities in the U.S. and overseas,” said Sreenivasan.

The pair also discussed the role that businesses play in developing smart cities, and how New York was actively working with industry to reduce layers of red tape.

Sreenivasan noted that entrepreneurs developing innovative new services or products often face difficulties associated with highly regulated industries.

For startups looking to loosen regulations related to smart city technology, he advised business leaders to help the discussion with the city by presenting a strong business model.

“Being a sustainable business is important in order to make it worthwhile for the city to change these regulations,” said Sreenivasan.

Not just disruption for disruption’s sake

The city representatives also emphasized the importance of not pursuing disruption for disruption’s sake. Rather, they advised connected city startups to focus on the end goal – making citizens’ lives better.

Gamiño said that this is where the city plays a pivotal bridge role, providing the crucial dialog between the next-level tech industry and NYC’s residents.

Ultimately, he says smart city projects need to contribute positively in areas like economic mobility and job opportunities, which are of key importance to residents.

“The question is always, ‘How does this move the needle on issues everybody, not just technical people, are interested in?’” said Gamiño.

New York City was previously awarded “Best Smart City 2016” at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona.