Internet of Things To Connect 40.9 Billion Devices Wirelessly By 2020
According to a market forecast research conducted by ABI Research by the end of this year, there will be a 16 billion increase in the number of active wireless devices bound on the Internet of Things. This represents a 20% increase in the number of connected devices.
The report also predicts that by the end of the year 2020, the number of connected devices will double up to 40.9 billion.
“The driving force behind the surge in connections is that usual buzzword suspect, the Internet of Things (IoT). If we look at this year’s installed base, smartphones, PCs, and other ‘hub’ devices represent still 44% of the active total, but by end-2020 their share is set to drop to 32%.” Said, Principal Analyst, Aapo Markkanen. “In other words, 75% of the growth between today and the end of the decade will come from non-hub devices: sensor nodes and accessories.”
The growing concern about the ever increasing number of devices connecting IoT, is whether or not the technology will be able to connect the excess devices sufficiently. It so happens that product OEMs will use cellular, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi among others. All of which will be addressing their comfort zones.
It, therefore, follows that there will be an increased competition among each other leading up to the stakes rising for the suppliers of these devices.
“The recently introduced Thread protocol, spearheaded by Nest Labs, is the clearest example of this convergence. It is not only setting the bar higher for ZigBee in the 802.15.4 space, but also piling up pressure on Bluetooth suppliers to enable mesh networking,” said, Dan Shey, Practice Director.
“In the meantime, the LTE-MTC and LTE-M initiatives may well expand the market for cellular M2M while start-ups like Electric Imp and Spark could do the same for Wi-Fi. And finally, we also shouldn’t ignore what’s going on with passive, proximity-based connectivity offered by RFID and NFC. For example, Thinfilm’s plans with printed electronics warrant attention.”