The global spending on the internet of things (IoT) is forecasted to grow 16.7% year-over-year in 2017
By 2021, global internet of things spending is expected to total nearly $1.4 trillion as organizations continue to invest in the hardware, software, services, and connectivity that enable the IoT, according to the report.
“The discussion about IoT has shifted away from the number of devices connected,” said Carrie MacGillivray, vice president, Internet of Things and Mobility at IDC. “The true value of IoT is being realized when the software and services come together to enable the capture, interpretation, and action on data produced by IoT endpoints.”
IDC said that the IoT use cases that are expected to attract the largest investments this year include manufacturing operations ($105 billion), freight monitoring ($50 billion), and production asset management ($45 billion).
Smart grid technologies for electricity, gas and water and smart building technologies are also forecast to see significant investments this year ($56 billion and $40 billion, respectively).
IDC´s study also revealed that smart home technologies are forecast to experience strong growth (19.8% CAGR) over the five-year forecast. The use cases that will see the fastest spending growth are airport facilities automation (33.4% CAGR), electric vehicle charging (21.1% CAGR), and in-store contextual marketing (20.2% CAGR).
The industries making the largest IoT investments in 2017 are manufacturing ($183 billion), transportation ($85 billion), and utilities ($66 billion).
From a technology perspective, hardware will be the largest spending category until the last year of the forecast when it will be overtaken by the services category. Hardware spending will be dominated by modules and sensors that connect end points to networks, while software spending will be dominated by applications software.
Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) (APeJ) will be the IoT investment leader throughout the forecast period with spending expected to reach $455 billion in 2021. The second and third largest regions will be the United States ($421 billion in 2021) and Western Europe ($274 billion), according to IDC.
