Bn Connected Things to Be In Use in 2016: Gartner

Gartner’s estimation counted 4 billion connected items in the consumer sector in 2016, with over 300 percent growth until 2020, when the number of such gadgets may reach 13.5 billion.

That figure represents a 30 percent rise from 2015 – and will grow further to reach 20.8 billion by 2020.

As a result, the growing Internet of Things will support total services spending of $235bn (£154bn) in 2016, up 22 per cent from 2015.

Gartner analyst Jim Tully said: “Connected things for specialised use are now the largest category”.

“Increasing attention is being focused on new services by end-user organizations and vendors”, he pointed out.

Aside from basic connectivity standards like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, diversity will continue to reign, and specifications for things like networking and security will keep evolving, Middleton said.

CHRISTMAS IS COMING AND LISTS ARE BEING MADE, and if the analysts at Gartner are correct a lot of those lists will likely include internet-connected devices.

Tully says the enterprise will account for the largest IoT spending, with enterprise IoT hardware spend of $868 billion in 2016.

Cross-industry devices include connected light bulbs; heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems; and building management systems that are mainly deployed for purposes of cost-saving.

The second class covers vertical-specific devices, such as specialised equipment used in hospital operating theatres and tracking devices in container ships.

We have an Internet of Things (IoT) gold rush going on at the moment, and the connected device is becoming ever more popular.

After buying IoT devices, users often need to keep spending on services.

The Gartner report shows a prominent increase in the professional area.

But in businesses, the landscape of connected objects is changing. In fact, that’s where the value really comes from, Gartner says.

“Consider the systems that are needed for coordination and orchestration, and think about how your enterprise will fi€t in that ecosystem, especially with regard to customer service”.