U.K.-based telecom group Vodafone said 89% of companies investing in the internet of things (IoT) have increased their budgets over the last 12 months. The finding is part of its fourth annual IoT Barometer Report.
According to the recently published report, 76% of all companies interviewed believe that taking advantage of IoT technologies will be critical for the future success of any organization and that IoT investment now accounts for 24% of the average IT budget, on a par with cloud computing or data analytics.
Also, 48% of companies interviewed are using IoT technologies to support large-scale business transformation, rising to 61% in the Asia-Pacific region. The Vodafone IoT Barometer also revealed that 46% of all companies interviewed intend to develop new IoT-based products and services over the next two years.
“Three-quarters of the companies we interviewed now recognize that the Internet of Things is a new industrial revolution that will change how people work and live forever, and almost half the companies surveyed across multiple countries and sectors told us they’re already planning to bring connected network intelligence to millions of devices and processes over the next two years. 2016 is the year the Internet of Things entered the mainstream,” Vodafone Group IoT Director Erik Brenneis said.
This meshes with new projections from ABI Research which suggests that, as the IoT expands, there will be some 47 billion active wireless connected devices by 2021 with accessories and sensor nodes representing 65% of the total base.
According to the study, smartphones, PCs, and other “hub” devices historically commanded the leading share of total active connections, with accessories (including smartphone and PC peripherals, residential smart home lighting, and wearable devices) and sensor nodes (like Bluetooth beacons, proximity sensors, and other edge devices) accounting for the remainder. But moving forward, the latter will benefit most from continued improvements to underlying IoT infrastructure, ABI Research said.
“A 24.1% CAGR through 2021 positions 2016 to be the first year that accessories and sensor nodes are in the majority, rising to more than 65% of total active connections by the end of the forecast period,” ABI Research’s senior analyst Ryan Martin, said “Now the critical question for companies is how to create a strategic framework that optimizes IoT solution ROI in concert with connected endpoint growth. Growth will be driven by a massive uptick in contextually-aware IoT endpoints across retail, advertising and supply chain, smart home, and industrial IoT markets.”
The recent convergence of low-power wide area (LPWA), short-range wireless, and cellular networks represents a fertile battleground for the future of IoT enablement, the consultancy added.
