January 5, 2017
Smart buildings and driverless vehicles to spearhead huge growth in Internet of Things spending 0
Worldwide spending on the Internet of Things (IoT) is forecast to reach $737 billion for the past year (2016) as organisations invest in the hardware, software, services, and connectivity that enable the IoT. According to a new update to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Semiannual Internet of Things Spending Guide, global IoT spending will experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.6 percent over the 2015-2020 forecast period, reaching $1.29 trillion in 2020. The industries forecast to make the largest IoT investments in 2016 are Manufacturing ($178 billion), Transportation ($78 billion), and Utilities ($69 billion). Consumer IoT purchases, the fourth largest market segment in 2016, will become the third largest segment by 2020. Meanwhile, cross-industry IoT, such as that for connected vehicles and smart buildings, will rank among the top segments throughout the five-year forecast.
From a technology perspective, hardware will remain the largest spending category throughout the forecast, followed by services, software, and connectivity. And while hardware spending will nearly double over the five-year timeframe, it represents the slowest growing IoT technology group. Software and services spending will both grow faster than hardware and connectivity. Hardware spending will approach $400 billion by 2020. Modules and sensors, that connect end points to networks, will dominate hardware purchases, while application software will represent more than half of all IoT software investments.
Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan)(APeJ) is the geographic region that will see the greatest IoT spending throughout the forecast, followed by the United States, Western Europe, and Japan. Nearly a third of IoT purchases in APeJ will be made by the manufacturing industry, while Utilities and Transportation will change places as the second and third largest IoT industries by the end of the forecast. In the United States, Manufacturing will be the industry with the largest IoT investments throughout the forecast but with a lower share (roughly 15 percent) of total spending. In Western Europe, Consumer IoT spending will overtake Transportation and Utilities to become the second largest IoT industry in 2020.
“It is great to see that the Internet of Things will continue to fuel both business transformation and innovation acceleration markets such as robotics, cognitive computing, and virtual reality,” said IoT Research Fellow and Senior Vice President Vernon Turner. “The investments by China and the United States in IoT solutions is driving these two countries to account for double-digit annual growth rates and over half of the IoT spending.”
An IDC Web conference reviewing the Worldwide IoT Spending Guide will be held on January 11, 2017 at 11:00 am U.S. Eastern time. Details and registration for this complimentary event can be found here
