Asia's businesses have embraced Internet of Things technology as a core component of their companies' strategies. They currently lead the world in IoT adoption, with the number of companies embracing connected devices soaring 36% in 2017 -- up 200% from 2013, according to the Vodafone IoT Barometer 2017/18.
IoT implementations connect devices and can transfer data over a network without human-to-human or human-to-computer intervention. The survey found that 77% of Asia's businesses consider IoT to be mission-critical and 88% of Asian respondents have increased the use of IoT solutions during the past 12 months.
In addition, the adoption has tangible benefits: 53% of Asian enterprises say IoT has boosted their market competitiveness. A noteworthy 42% of Asia’s businesses have more than 1,000 connected devices and 53% are seeing “significant” returns on their IoT investments.
Companies reported greater business insights, reduced costs and improved employee productivity due to IoT implementation. A very substantial number, 89%, said artificial intelligence and machine learning will be common by 2022. In addition, 79% of respondents said IoT solutions will be even more popular as security and privacy concerns become less of a concern; 83% of Asian businesses said they had adequate skills to manage IoT security, compared with 70% of European businesses just 65% of the Americas at 65%.
The primary benefit of IoT? Improved market competitiveness (53%) was ranked to top benefit, while only 35% in the Americas and 33% in Europe considered IoT implementation a competitive advantage.
Source: http://electronics360.globalspec.com/article/10244/asia-leads-in-iot-adoption-worldwide