A Change That’s Fundamentally Altering Modern Business
To get a good idea of how things have changed in the IoT market through 2021, here we’ll explore a few indicative statistics. As Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, tend to help paint a picture of how a given company is handling operations, certain industry stats also reveal where tech innovations like those involved in the Internet of Things are headed. In this article, we’ll explore notable data points in these areas:
- Spending Overall
- The Ultimate Importance of IoT Spending
- Market Transition, Growing Markets, and Growth Levels
- Not-Quite-Miscellaneous Stats Worth Considering from 2020 to 2022
Spending Overall
When a big tech business is about to make a move toward profit, that often means spending money in a certain area. Think of it this way: if you’re going to build furniture for a living, you must first acquire an adequate supply of wood.
Where tech companies plan on building tech “infrastructure”, they must first acquire technological materials so they can. In terms of IoT tech, that means getting new devices to help provide more data visibility and streamlined operations.
By 2020, the IoT market hit a global increase of 12.1% at $128.9 billion. Growth was greatest in the Asia-Pacific region, clocking in at 17%. North America’s growth was 14.9%, and Europe’s was 9.7%. As 2021 comes to a close, its expected spending has increased around 24% on that figure.
Expect the year to end at around $159.8 billion for IoT spending worldwide. In 2022, a 26.7% growth rate is expected: and all this despite the pandemic crisis. In fact, owing to decentralization and the hygienic nature of automation, there’s an argument to be made that the present crisis has actually helped fuel the IoT industry collaterally.
The Ultimate Importance of IoT Spending
Now, this matters for a number of reasons. Markets re-accelerating as COVID-19 fades represent a very important data point in any investor’s investment toolkit.
Similarly, businesses seeking competitive viability and increased profit for decreased infrastructure spending should also look into where tech innovations rooted in IoT developments might be applicable.
IoT is a high-growth market, and cumulative opportunities across the world, and throughout virtually all aspects of productive technology (from manufacturing to data management, and everything in between) stand to benefit from its implementation. This is one solid reason IoT market growth increases on an almost exponential curve, year over year, despite global health concerns.
Market Transition, Growing Markets, and Growth Levels
Oil industry issues meant 2020’s energy industry IoT spending declined more than other industry averages around the world. Contrarily, warehouse IoT spending jumped 22.3% in 2020. Meanwhile, automotive IoT spending was variable. China’s manufacturers expanded 20%, Europe and South America didn’t see any substantive growth. Meanwhile, pharmaceuticals, energy, and metals saw substantial IoT expansion.
Regionally, the Asia-Pacific and North American regions saw the most growth, with Europe a little further behind than might have been expected. Much of this has to do with pandemic issues, some of it has to do with population and infrastructure differences. China’s market saw a 23.5% IoT growth in enterprise-level operations through 2020. Part of that had to do with their approach to the health crisis. Higher growth continues to be expected in these regions through 2021, and in the same configuration: Asia-Pacific groups will lead, North America will follow, and Europe brings up the rear.
Technologically speaking, overall IoT security spending in 2020 saw a 40.3% increase. Hackers considered the pandemic to be an attack opportunity, meaning companies who pay attention to such trends found an added prerogative to more effectively secure their data. Also, it was discovered that many IT professionals used pandemic hygiene issues to digitally “groom” their operations, so they were more secure in terms of data management overall. 83% of companies implemented new digital hygiene measures in 2020.
Cloud computing capability was partially behind both infrastructural IoT deployment and digital hygiene development. Collaterally, as IoT has enabled predictive maintenance, maximized ROI has led to a further increase in IoT use. Finally, spending seemed to advance more in software areas than hardware areas with respect to IoT in 2020. Only 5.4% more was spent on varying computers, sensors, and chipsets. In some economic regions, spending actually declined. Going forward, keep an eye on IoT chipsets; growth is expected to be notable in 2021, and into 2022.
Not-Quite-Miscellaneous Stats Worth Considering from 2020 to 2022
Most households have at least 10 devices connected. As 2021 comes to a close, that number is nearing 50 per household, and certainly will increase. Think about it: a smartphone, a smartwatch, a smart car, a smart thermostat, smart light bulbs, smart garage door openers, smart cameras, smart baby monitors–smart homes, in general, can include dozens of IoT devices. Spending in the world overall is said to have surpassed $1 trillion in 2020. Meanwhile, endpoint security spending will reach around $631 million by year’s end. That’s a huge increase; in 2016, spending was only at $91 million.
Here’s another indicative and interesting stat: it has been found approximately 127 devices hook up to the internet for the very first time every single second. On average, those devices are attacked by some sort of cybercriminal attack within five minutes of their initial activation. It’s easy to see why security needs are so high with regard to IoT tech. About 3/4 of all attacks come through web routers, so this is a security bottleneck where investment is likely to expand in terms of tech breakthroughs and appropriate security.
Corporate cost-reduction is a big reason so many devices are being activated as quickly as they are. IoT maximizes ROI, reducing operational costs and stimulating more profitable operations overall. Data from 1,600 separate enterprises regarding IoT found approximately 54% of them acquired this tech owing to cost reduction. As for increased revenue, that defined 35% of IoT acquisitions, and security needs only accounted for 24%.
Smart homes were alluded to earlier, that market is set to hit $53.45 billion by the end of 2022. One dominating device in this market is Amazon’s Echo, but more manufacturers are catching on, and Amazon should expect some competition soon. Naturally, there will be a need to properly install, secure, and maintain associated software and hardware as IoT growth accelerates. That’s going to direct economic funding to a new industry; one almost solely associated with IoT expansion. For more information on these and other relevant IoT stats, check out this site.
Informing Use of IoT Going Forward with Relevant Data
There’s quite a bit of data to comb through with regard to IoT, and since such web-enabled devices are primarily informational to begin with, you can expect an increase in what data is available to interpret.
To get the best idea of what’s going on in the IoT market, it’s important to narrow down your focus. Spending considerations, market transition, which markets are growing, and at what levels, and certain collateral statistics defining the industry overall represent areas of the market you want to keep an eye on as a business. One thing is sure: IoT is an increasingly integral component of modern business and deserves careful attention.