IoT by Numbers

If you haven’t heard about the ‘Internet of Things’ yet, you’re either living under a rock, or congratulations: you’ve truly unplugged, and I envy your peace of mind!

Technologist Kevin Ashton coined the term “Internet of Things” – IoT, back in 1999 to describe how a ubiquitous network of sensors connected to the Internet can deliver information about the physical world directly to enterprise systems without human intervention.

By the end of this year, four times more ‘things’ than people are expected to be connected to the Internet. And within five years, the number of ‘things’ connected to the Internet will be six times more than humans, based on the latest report from IC Insights.

IoT is expected to grow from US$656 billion in 2014 to US$1.7 trillion in 2020. McKinsey & Co predicts that the economic impact of the IoT could be between US$3.9 trillion and US$11.1 trillion per year by 2025.

New connections to the Internet of Things are forecast to increase 40% this year, which translates to 574 million new internet connections.

For context, IoT connections grew 45% to 410 million last year.

Overall, the total number of IoT connections will hit 13 billion worldwide this year, which compares to 3 billion humans using computers, mobile phones and other systems applications over the internet, according to IC Insights.

In five years, more than 25 billion things are expected to be attached to the internet versus 4 billon human users.

And money is following around the connected things, with total IoT revenue expected to grow 21% annually, reaching $104 billion in three years. In terms of where we are now, market revenue associated with communications, sensing and control functions will reach $62 billion this year.

The net effect is that the global platform growth rate of connected things is on a tear.

The mass of connected objects is going to provide a host of new platforms for messaging.

And the messaging will be riding along various avenues, ranging from connected homes and cars to wearables.

And the size of the wearables market is growing, thanks to the launch of the Apple smartwatch.

The IoT technological plumbing is rapidly being put in place around the world. Next up will be the creation and deployment of the information that will flow throughout that network.

We believe IoT will create value through productivity improvements, time savings and better asset utilisation. But beyond the workplace, it will also improve our quality of life by increasing energy savings, improving our health, and strengthening security, amongst other things.

This infographic explains the past, present and future of IoT.