On Friday, Gartner issued a new report projecting big things for the Internet of things (which is the network of physical objects that contain embedded technology to communicate and sense or interact with their internal states or the external environment).
The Internet of Things (IoT), which excludes PCs, tablets and smartphones, will grow to 26 billion units installed in 2020.
If that happens – and Gartner says it will – it will represent an almost 30-fold increase from 0.9 billion in 2009.
Gartner also said that IoT product and service suppliers will generate incremental revenue exceeding $300 billion, mostly in services, in 2020. It will result in $1.9 trillion in global economic value-add through sales into diverse end markets.
“The growth in IoT will far exceed that of other connected devices. By 2020, the number of smartphones tablets and PCs in use will reach about 7.3 billion units,” said Peter Middleton, research director at Gartner. “In contrast, the IoT will have expanded at a much faster rate, resulting in a population of about 26 billion units at that time.”
Due to the low cost of adding IoT capability to consumer products, Gartner expects that “ghost” devices with unused connectivity will be common. This will be a combination of products that have the capability built in but require software to “activate” it and products with IoT functionality that customers do not actively leverage, today’s report summary explains.
