IoT services are set to be a big revenue driver for partners in 2017, with the Internet of Things (IoT) market set to hit 8.4 billion devices globally this year.
Research from analyst firm, Gartner, predicts the market to grow at an increase of 31 per cent on last year, boosting spending on endpoints and services to almost US$2 trillion.
The firm suggests that this growth will be driven predominantly by Greater China, North America and Western Europe with the three regions together to represent 67 per cent of the overall IoT instal base in 2017.
The consumer segment is the largest user of connected things with 5.2 billion units in 2017, representing 63 per cent of the overall number of applications in use.
"Aside from automotive systems, the applications that will be most in use by consumers will be smart TVs and digital set-top boxes, while smart electric meters and commercial security cameras will be most in use by businesses,” Gartner research director, Peter Middleton said.
The firm said businesses are on pace to employ 3.1 billion connected things globally in 2017.
Industry specific applications are set to drive IoT adoption in the business community, as 1.6 billion units set to be in use by the end of the year.
However, Gartner said this will be short lived with cross-industry devices, such as those targeted at smart buildings (including LED lighting, HVAC and physical security systems) will take the lead from 2018 onwards, as connectivity is driven into higher-volume, lower cost devices.
In 2020, the firm predicts cross-industry devices will reach 4.4 billion units, while vertical-specific devices will total 3.2 billion units.
From a local perspective, the firm predicts that the market in Australia and New Zealand will hit 39 million units this year and almost 100 million by 2020,
Business still trumps consumer spend
Even though they lag in adoption in terms of volume, businesses still leads consumers in terms of hardware spending, with Gartner predicting the use of connected things among businesses will drive US$964 billion.
Consumer applications will amount to US$725 billion in 2017. By 2020, hardware spending from both segments will reach almost US$3 trillion.
“IoT services are central to the rise in IoT devices,” Gartner research director, Denise Rueb, added.
“Total IoT services spending (professional, consumer and connectivity services) is on pace to reach $273 billion in 2017.
"Services are dominated by the professional IoT-operational technology category in which providers assist businesses in designing, implementing and operating IoT systems.
"However, connectivity services and consumer services will grow at a faster pace. Consumer IoT services are newer and growing off a small base. Similarly, connectivity services are growing robustly as costs drop, and new applications emerge."
