Global IoT market will surpass the $1 trillion mark by 2024

GlobalData’s latest report, ‘Thematic Research: Internet of Things,’ explains how a COVID-19 driven new digital transformation wave will fuel higher growth across all IoT markets. The global IoT market was worth $622bn in 2020, up from $586bn in 2019, and will grow to reach $1,077bn by 2024, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13% over the period, according to GlobalData forecasts. The enterprise IoT dominates the overall IoT market, generating 76% of total revenue in 2020. This dominance of the enterprise IoT will continue for the foreseeable future. GlobalData expects this segment to still occupy 73% of the overall IoT market in 2024.

Jasaswini Biswal, Associate Project Manager for Thematic Research at GlobalData, comments: “The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the crucial role the IoT has come to play in our lives. Several IoT use cases saw growing adoption during the pandemic, including using connected thermal cameras to detect potential COVID-19 infections and sensors for monitoring office occupancy levels.

“The demand for technologies that can help the workforce get safely back to work is rising and will likely continue to grow. IoT applications such as contact tracing devices and health-monitoring wearables provide critical data to help fight the pandemic.”

These new use cases have created a positive attitude towards IoT as a critical enabler of the future. According to Globaldata’s ‘*Emerging Technology Trends Survey 2020’, approximately 48% of respondents showed a positive sentiment towards IoT, and 45% believed IoT would play a critical role in the new business generation over the next three years.

Biswal continues: “The next phase of IoT has the potential to transform how we live and work. As IoT penetration extends to the point of being pervasive, entirely new business models will emerge. IoT networks will even do business with one another - providing services resulting from autonomous or near-autonomous collaboration.

“However, today’s IoT systems lack three critical features: Firstly, unstructured and fragmented security regulations are major roadblocks to broader IoT adoption: be it in consumer or enterprise IoT.

“Secondly, there is no global IoT communication standard. The global IoT market can only take off once all connected devices speak the same language.. Thirdly, alongside this lack of standardization, current IoT ecosystems lack real-time intelligence, which relies largely on edge computing and the artificial intelligence of things (AIoT). In order for IoT to be pervasive, these three deficiencies need to be addressed.”