The IoT is being driven by consumer expectations, network connectivity, regulatory compliance and other factors, Verizon states in its IoT trends report.
Verizon’s 2016 State of the Market IoT Report, released April 5, shows that IoT network connections have experienced sharp growth since 2014. Connections have increased by 58 percent in the energy sector, 50 percent for home monitoring, 49 percent in transportation, and 43 percent for smart cities.
Revenue growth is the largest factor driving IoT adoption but only 8 percent of businesses are using more than 25 percent of the data generated by their IoT devices, the report states.
According to Verizon, five IoT trends underscoring adoption include:
- Data monetization: Platform-as-a-service and other products are showing companies the value of data and in being able to help other companies manage theirs.
- Consumer expectations: Verizon says customer expectations of the IoT fall into three distinct categories. Tech Solutionists encompass early adopters and tech enthusiasts always looking for the latest and greatest new things to make life better, Growing Networks include people who lives are changing due to the birth of children or having to care for elderly parents. The Addicted to Improvement category, meanwhile, includes people who are crave constant updates on people and things and want products and services that can help them get more.
- Regulatory landscape: Regulatory compliance, especially with pharmaceutical and energy laws, are driving industry to adopt and deploy IoT networks in order to meet the requirements placed upon them.
- Network connectivity/IoT platforms: Homekit (Apple), Jasper (Cisco), Brillo (Google), Watson (IBM) and Thingspace (Verizon) provide infrastructure for developers to build on, giving deployment and development a jumpstart by making the process a lot less complicated.
- Security: Study respondents said the success of the IoT depends on developing systems, procedures and policies that will keep devices and data secure.
Verizon predicts the worldwide IoT market will grow from $591.7 billion in 2014 to $1.3 trillion in 2019. The installed base of IoT endpoints will grow from 9.7 billion in 2014 to more than 25.6 billion in 2019, hitting 30 billion in 2021.
They also noted that in 2016, enterprise IoT start ups are predicted to generate two-to-three times more funding than consumer ones.
Verizon’s report used commissioned research from Oxford Economics, reports from Gartner and other experts, Verizon usage data, and interviews with Verizon customers.
