There will be 20.8 billion Internet of Things devices by 2020
It is being predicted that the ever-growing market of the Internet of Things will support total services spending of $235 billion (£155bn) in 2016. At the same time, the number of connected devices will grow 30 percent year-on-year, reaching 6.4 billion units globally.
But the growth won’t stop there. As a matter of fact, it will speed up, reaching 20.8 billion units by 2020. According to a Gartner report, the professional category will dominate. In it, businesses contract with external providers in order to design, install and operate IoT systems.
Still, consumer and connectivity services will grow at a higher pace.
"IoT services are the real driver of value in IoT, and increasing attention is being focused on new services by end-user organizations and vendors", said Jim Tully, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.
"Aside from connected cars, consumer uses will continue to account for the greatest number of connected things, while enterprise will account for the largest spending", Tully said, pointing out that Gartner estimates that four billion connected things will be in use in the consumer sector in 2016, and will reach 13.5 billion in 2020.
In terms of hardware spending, according to Gartner, consumer applications will amount to $546 billion (£360bn) in 2016, while the use of connected things in the enterprise will drive $868 billion (£572bn) in 2016.
When it comes to enterprise, Gartner looks at two classes: generic / cross-industry devices used in multiple industries and vertical-specific devices, seen in particular industries.
"Connected things for specialized use are currently the largest category, however, this is quickly changing with the increased use of generic devices", Tully says. "By 2020, cross-industry devices will dominate the number of connected things used in the enterprise".
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