Global research firm Gartner today said 1.1 billion devices are expected to connect people at homes and offices through the Internet of Things (IoT) by 2020, making people and cities “smart”.
“The IoT will connect a whopping 9.7 billion devices by 2020, while smart homes will lead with 294 million connected devices in 2015,” forecast the Gartner report.
Smart homes and smart buildings, representing 45 percent of connected things in use this year, are projected to touch 81 percent by 2020, with increasing investments and service opportunities.
Describing a smart city as an urban area where multiple sectors cooperate to achieve sustainable outcomes, Gartner said IoT would facilitate sharing real-time information specifically. As denizens invest more in smart-home solutions, the number of connected things in smart homes will cross one billion units in 2017.
Smart LED lighting will record the highest growth of IoT consumer applications, with 570 million units expected to be sold by 2020 as against six million this year, as light will be a communication carrier than an illumination source.
The report said electric mobility, charging stations and embedded IoT will generate additional opportunities in smart cities. Though investment in IoT hardware is key to smart cities, the real revenue opportunity for TSPs is in the services and analytics sector.
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