Gartner is predicting that there will be 6.4 billion connected things in use worldwide in 2016, up 30% from 2015.
The research firm predicts that, in 2016, 5.5 million new things will get connected every day. By 2020 the number of connected things is expected to swell to 20.8 billion.
Gartner estimates that the Internet of Things (IoT) will support total services spending of $235 billion in 2016, up 22% from 2015.
Services are dominated by the professional category in which businesses contract with external providers in order to design, install and operate IoT systems.
However connectivity services through communications service providers and consumer services will grow at a faster pace.
"IoT services are the real driver of value in IoT, and increasing attention is being focused on new services by end-user organizations and vendors," said Jim Tully, VP at Gartner.
"Aside from connected cars, consumer uses will continue to account for the greatest number of connected things, while enterprise will account for the largest spending," said Tully.
Gartner estimates that 4 billion connected things will be in use in the consumer sector in 2016, and will reach 13.5 billion in 2020.
In terms of hardware spending, consumer applications will amount to $546 billion in 2016, while the use of connected things in the enterprise will drive $868 billion in 2016.
"Connected things for specialized use are currently the largest category, however, this is quickly changing with the increased use of generic devices,” said Tully. “By 2020, cross-industry devices will dominate the number of connected things used in the enterprise.”
Cross-industry devices include connected light bulbs, HVAC (heating, ventilating and air conditioning) and building management systems that are mainly deployed for purposes of cost saving.
Vertical-specific devices, such as specialized equipment used in hospital operating theatres, tracking devices in container ships, etc.
Source: http://www.telecomasia.net/content/iot-swell-30-2016-gartner