The Internet
of Things (IoT) will grow to 26 billion units by 2020, representing an
almost 30-fold increase from 0.9 billion in 2009, as per IT research and
advisory firm Gartner.
The Internet of Things is the network of
physical objects that contain embedded technology to communicate and
sense or interact with their internal states or the external
environment.
The IoT product and service supplier, which
excludes PCs, tablets and smartphones will generate incremental revenue
exceeding $300 billion, mostly in services, in 2020. It will result in
$1.9 trillion in global economic value-add through sales into diverse
end markets.
"The growth in IoT will far exceed that of other
connected devices. By 2020, the number of smartphones tablets and PCs in
use will reach about 7.3 billion units," said Peter Middleton,research
director at Gartner.
"In contrast, the IoT will have expanded at
a much faster rate, resulting in a population of about 26 billion units
at that time," he added.
Gartner expects the "ghost" devices
with unused connectivity to be common owing to the low cost of adding
IoT capability to consumer products.
In addition, enterprises
will make extensive use of IoT technology. There will be a wide range of
products sold into various markets, such as advanced medical devices,
factory automation sensors and applications in industrial robotics,
sensor motes for increased agricultural yield, and automotive sensors
and infrastructure integrity monitoring systems for diverse areas, such
as road and railway transportation, water distribution and electrical
transmission.
"By 2020, component costs will have come down to
the point that connectivity will become a standard feature. This opens
up the possibility of connecting; very simple to the very complex, to
offer remote control, monitoring and sensing," said Mr. Middleton.
"Today,
many categories of connected things in 2020 don't yet exist. As product
designers dream up ways to exploit the inherent connectivity that will
be offered in intelligent products, we expect the variety of devices
offered to explode."
Emerging areas will witness rapid growth of
connected things. IoT will also facilitate new business models such as
usage-based insuranceother than supporting a large range of health and
fitness services, connected sensor and generic technologies.
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