Consumer spending on IoT devices worldwide to grow to $725 billion in 2017

Consumer installed IoT has increased significantly to 5.2 billion units in 2017 from 3.9 billion units in 2016.

Internet of Things. Photo: Pixabay

31% growth in connect things worldwide in 2017
Total spending on IoT endpoints and services will reach almost $2 trillion in 2017

Greater China, North America and Western Europe are driving IoT devices

Consumer installed IoT has increased significantly to 5.2 billion units in 2017 from 3.9 billion units in 2016

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Consumer spends on IoT devices expected to grow to $725 billion in 2017

For businesses too the spends is expected to grow significantly from $683 billion in 2017

The world will have 8.4 billion connected things in use, a 31% growth from that in 2016. Total spending on endpoints and services will reach almost $2 trillion in 2017, according to a Gartner Inc report. It further forecasts it to reach 20.4 billion connected things by 2020.

With the internet of things (IoT) it has become essential for people to have every gadget connected online.

Regionally, Greater China, North America and Western Europe are driving the use of connected things and the three regions together will represent 67% of the overall IoT installed base in 2017.

While businesses are using IoT in a big way, the biggest users of IoT comes from consumer applications. The report says that consumer applications represent 63% of the total IoT applications in 2017.

Consumer installed IoT has increased significantly to 5.2 billion units in 2017 from 3.9 billion units in 2016. It is expected to grow to 7 billion IoT units for consumer applications by 2018 and grow to 12.8 billion units by 2020.

IoT Units Installed Base by Category (Millions of Units)

Category	2016	2017	2018	2020
Consumer	3,963.0	5,244.3	7,036.3	12,863.0
Business: Cross-Industry	1,102.1	1,501.0	2,132.6	4,381.4
Business: Vertical-Specific	1,316.6	1,635.4	2,027.7	3,171.0
Grand Total	6,381.8	8,380.6	11,196.6	20,415.4

Source: Gartner (January 2017)

In terms of spends the consumer category is expected to grow to $725 billion in 2017 and grow to $985 billion by 2018. By 2020 it will account for $1.4 trillion in spends from consumers in IoT devices.

Businesses are on pace to employ 3.1 billion connected things in 2017. “Aside from automotive systems, the applications that will be most in use by consumers will be smart TVs and digital set-top boxes, while smart electric meters and commercial security cameras will be most in use by businesses,” said Peter Middleton, research director at Gartner.

IoT units that will be employed for businesses across industries is expected to grow 4.3 billion units by 2020. However, in 2017 it is expected to grow to 1.5 billion units and by 2018 will account for 2.1 billion units.

While consumers purchase more devices, businesses spend more. In 2017, in terms of hardware spending, the use of connected things among businesses will drive $964 billion. Consumer applications will amount to $725 billion in 2017. By 2020, hardware spending from both segments will reach almost $3 trillion.

IoT Endpoint Spending by Category (Billions of Dollars)

Category	2016	2017	2018	2020
Consumer	532,515	725,696	985,348	1,494,466
Business: Cross-Industry	212,069	280,059	372,989	567,659
Business: Vertical-Specific	634,921	683,817	736,543	863,662
Grand Total	1,379,505	1,689,572	2,094,881	2,925,787

Source: Gartner (January 2017)

For businesses too the spends is expected to grow significantly from $683 billion in 2017 to $736 billion in 2018 and $2.9 trillion by 2020.

“IoT services are central to the rise in IoT devices,” said Denise Rueb, research director at Gartner. Total IoT services spending (professional, consumer and connectivity services) is on pace to reach $273 billion in 2017.

“Services are dominated by the professional IoT-operational technology category in which providers assist businesses in designing, implementing and operating IoT systems,” added Rueb. “However, connectivity services and consumer services will grow at a faster pace. Consumer IoT services are newer and growing off a small base. Similarly, connectivity services are growing robustly as costs drop, and new applications emerge.”

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