The enterprise and automotive Internet of Things (IoT) market is expected to grow to 5.8bn endpoints in 2020 according to new forecasts from Gartner.
By the end of this year though, 4.8bn endpoints are expected to be in use and this represents a 21.5 percent increase from 2018. Utilities will be the highest user of IoT endpoints with a total of 1.17bn endpoints in 2019 but this is expected to grow by 17 percent in 2020 to reach 1.37bn endpoints.
Senior research director at Gartner, Peter Middleton explained what factors will drive utilities increased adoption of IoT endpoints, saying:
“Electricity smart metering, both residential and commercial will boost the adoption of IoT among utilities. Physical security, where building intruder detection and indoor surveillance use cases will drive volume, will be the second largest user of IoT endpoints in 2020.”
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Building automation is expected to see the largest growth rate in 2020 (42%) driven by connected lighting devices followed by automotive and healthcare which are forecast to grow 31 percent and 29 percent respectively. Chronic condition monitoring will drive the most IoT endpoints in healthcare while cars with embedded IoT connectivity will do in the automotive industry.
Use cases by region
Residential electricity smart metering will be the top use case for Greater China and Western Europe in 2020 and will represent 26 percent and 12 percent of total IoT endpoints respectively. North America on the other hand, will see its highest IoT endpoint adoption in building intruder detection with door and window sensors representing eight percent of total IoT endpoints.
Revenue earned from endpoint electronics will total $389bn globally in 2020 and will be concentrated across North America, Greater China and Western Europe. These three regions will represent 75 percent of overall endpoint electronics revenue and North America will record $120bn, Greater China will reach $91bn and Western Europe will total $82bn in 2020.
Consumer connected cars and networkable printing and photocopying are the two use cases that will produce the most endpoint electronics revenue in 2020, totaling $72bn and $38bn respectively. Connected cars will retain a significant portion of the total endpoints electronics spending as manufacturers implement connectivity in a greater percentage of their vehicle production moving forward. Indoor video surveillance is another use case that will see increased endpoints as governments focus on public safety.
Research vice president at Gartner, Alfonso Velosa explained how the rise in IoT endpoints will likely lead to more work for CIOs, saying:
“Overall, end users will need to prepare to address an environment where the business units will increasingly buy IoT-enabled assets without policies for support, data ownership or integration into existing business applications. This will require the CIO’s team to start developing a policy and architecture-based approach to support business units’ objectives, while protecting the organization from data threats. Product managers will need to deliver but also to clearly and loudly communicate their IoT-based business value to specific verticals and their business processes, if they are to succeed in this crowded arena.”
