2019 surge in IoT spending just ‘scratching the surface’

Tue, 5th Feb 2019

FYI, this story is more than a year old

Investment in Internet of Things (IoT) solutions In Europe is set to continue its relentless march forward in 2019.

According to statistics from the International Data Corporation (IDC), revenues for the European IoT market are set to increase by 19.8 percent year on year in 2019 to reach US$171 billion.

Meanwhile, total spending on IoT solutions within the continent is expected to maintain a double-digit growth rate throughout the 2017-2022 period and exceed $241 billion in 2022.

These forecasts are based on IDC's numbers on the IoT technology market that delves into business investment opportunities and use-case implementations across a wide range of industries.

According to IDC, IoT growth will be rampant across the entire region, however, Western Europe will account for the sheer majority with Germany being crowned the European IoT champion in 2019 in accounting for more than $35 billion of the total spend.

Next up is France and the UK with each set to spend around $25 billion, followed by Italy with $19 billion. Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) will account for 7 percent of the total European IoT revenues in 2019.

"We're still just scratching the surface of how powerful IoT solutions can be when combined with the massive scale of IoT endpoints, world-class connectivity and advanced technology," says IDC program manager Milan Kalal.

"That said, organisations across industries are gradually experiencing that driving business outcomes with IoT requires not only new technologies and expertise in areas like edge infrastructure, wired and wireless networking, security, and edge-to-cloud architectures, but also viable use-cases that deliver short-term results and help drive a strategic IoT innovation road map."

In terms of the industry spend across the spectrum, discrete manufacturing is leading the way with $20 billion, closely followed by utilities with $19 billion, retail with $16 billion, and transportation with $15 billion.

The spend by these industries will be largely focused on:

Manufacturing - Solutions that support operations and production asset management
Utilities - Smart grids for electricity, gas, and water
Retail - Omni-channel operations

Transportation - Freight monitoring and logistics solutions However, the industries with the fastest annual growth rate throughout the 2017-2022 period are retail with 18.5 percent, healthcare with 17.9 percent, and state/local government with 17.1 percent.

All that said, IDC asserts that the true leader for IoT spending this year will be the consumer sector with revenues exceeding $32 billion, with smart home, personal wellness, and connected vehicles applications set to dominate.

"We are now experiencing a dichotomy scenario across European IoT adopters: While a few advanced users are leveraging IoT technologies in full swing, there is still a large portion of users struggling to prove and replicate initial pilots and proof of concepts," says IDC research manager Andrea Siviero.

The largest technology category this year will be hardware with revenue exceeding $66 billion, driven by module and sensor purchases. IoT services will be nipping on its heels with $60 billion going towards traditional IT and installation services as well as non-traditional device and operational services.

Somewhat further back will be spending on IoT software with $35 billion in 2019, however, it will undergo the fastest growth rate over the five-year forecast with a compound annual growth rate of 18.9 percent.