Report: Smart cities will use 1.1 billion connected things in 2015

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Smart homes to lead with 294 million smart objects in use this year.

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Powered by the Internet of Things (IoT), the smart city of tomorrow will feature intelligent buildings, roads and public transport systems that are connected to each other and its inhabitants through sensors. This real-time information exchange will save people time, reduce environmental impact, lessen traffic and even create value for businesses along the way. Though still relatively new here in the United States, the advent of smart cities has already started taking shape across the world.

Smart homes and commercial buildings will represent 45% of all connected objects in 2015 and 81% by the end of 2020, according to a new report from Gartner. The study also estimates that 1.1 billion Internet-enabled items will be used by smart cities in 2015 with that number to rise to 9.7 billion over the next five years.

The majority of IoT spending for smart cities will come from the private sector, explained Gartner Research VP Bettina Tratz-Ryan. This will surely be some great news for technology companies and service providers that stand to benefit most in terms of revenue.

According to the report, there are a wide-range of IoT deployments for on-street and off-street parking guidance, road traffic guidance and traffic flow metering as well. A quick win within transport is the reduction of traffic congestion. California and the UK have already begun implementing radio receivers or sensors that are embedded on a section of highway to diagnose traffic conditions in real time. Another successful use of IoT in the city is smart parking. The city of Los Angeles, for instance, has been deploying new parking meters, parking space vehicle sensors, real-time parking guidance and a full parking management system to influence demand during peak times.

Beyond that, residential citizens will lead the way by increasingly investing in smart home solutions, with the amount of connected things used in smart homes currently at 294 million and projected to hit 1 billion units by 2017. These include smart LED lighting, healthcare monitoring, smart locks and various sensors for such things as motion detection or carbon monoxide. Smart LED lighting will record the highest growth of IoT consumer applications, from 6 million units in 2015 to 570 million units by 2020. As the study reveals, light will migrate from being an illumination source to a communications carrier incorporating safety, health, pollution and personalized services.

We expect that by 2020, many IoT TSPs will have grown their hardware revenues through services and software by more than 50 percent,” Tratz-Ryan concluded. The researcher goes on to say that smart home security and safety will represent the second-largest service market by revenue in 2017, and that come 2020, the smart healthcare and fitness market will have grown to nearly $38 billion.

Interested in reading more? You can find the entire Gartner report here. Meanwhile, discover how Atmel is powering the IoT by focusing on edge nodes, a category that includes everything from smart home appliances to infrastructures for smart cities.

Report: Internet of Things expected to quadruple in size by 2020

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Verizon reveals that while the IoT has expanded massively in the last couple of years, we’ve barely scratched the surface.

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The Internet of Things has certainly transcended beyond its state of infancy and is well on its way of gaining momentum, according to Verizon at least. In its latest findings, the carrier revealed that more than a billion devices are already connected and running business-to-business IoT operations.

In its “State of the Market” report, Verizon published that there were 1.2 billion various smart devices, and that the number is expected to rise to 5.4 billion by 2020 for an annual growth rate of 28%.

“It’s not hype. The Internet of Things is already having a massive impact on business. It offers organizations the opportunity to transform how they operate, and gives both new entrants and established players the ability to innovate and disrupt,” the company writes. “Adoption is growing rapidly, but IoT isn’t yet widespread. Whether you’re in the public sector or private; big or small — if you don’t have an IoT strategy, you should.”

Verizon experienced a 45% year-over-year revenue growth in its IoT business in 2014, with 4G LTE activations growing by 135%. Currently, the telecom manages more than 15 million IoT-enabled connections for a wide range of industries. To date, company experts estimate that just 10% of enterprises have deployed IoT technologies extensively, however research commissioned by Verizon from ABI Research forecasts massive growth ahead, with the number of business-to-business IoT connections more than quadrupling over the next five years.

Additionally, the global communications company also cites ABI Research in its revelations that organizations will introduce more than 13 million health and fitness tracking devices to the enterprise by 2018. In doing so, wearables can enhance wellness throughout the workplace, not to mention improve efficiency in hospitals and reduce the cost of healthcare.

Among those who use Verizon’s services, manufacturing has seen the biggest increase in machine-to-machine operations, with a 204% increase year-over-year. It’s followed by finance and insurance with a 128% increase, and media and entertainment, which has experience an uptick of 120%. Home monitoring and hospitality weren’t too far beyond with 89% and 88% jumps, respectively. Verizon data also shows an 83% YoY growth in IoT in the transportation and distribution sector as well.

In fact, Verizon’s telematics experts note that 14 car manufacturers account for 80% of the worldwide automotive market, and all of them have a connected car strategy. The report predicts that by 2025, at least five countries will have set a “zero road fatalities” target, relying on intelligent connected cars and smart road infrastructure to avoid and mitigate accidents.

Verizon analysts add that in 10 years, smart cities capabilities will become a critical consideration for companies deciding where to invest and open facilities, due to their impact on operating costs and talent availability. Recent data already shows a 46% YoY growth in the number of IoT connections in the public sector.

According to the report, IoT growth is being fueled by a mix of technological, political and social factors which are driving more organizations to adopt IoT-enabled solutions. For example, use of social media and mobile technology has transformed consumer and citizen expectations, while the declining cost of sensors, connectivity, and data processing power is making the ROI equations for IoT projects look even more appealing.

The carrier went on to highlight ever-growing security concerns for a constantly-connected world as well by noting, “In a mature IoT world, there will be millions of intelligent endpoints, such as cars, pacemakers, and aircon units, each equipped with dozens of active sensors and millions of lines of code. Many of these endpoints will be accessible, often physically, to hackers. The network connections that these endpoints use to communicate may also be vulnerable, giving access to central applications and databases.”

Interested in reading the Verizon report in its entirety? Download it here.

Report: 10 Internet of Things predictions for 2015

As the next frontier of the Internet, the IoT represents a compelling opportunity across a staggering array of applications. In its entirety, the Internet of Things can radically transform nearly every aspect of how we live, play and work, on local and global levels. Having a network of smart, connected devices means we can build safer buildings, design more fuel-efficient cars, lead healthier lifestyles. Self-regulating systems, with access to big data, mean more automated manufacturing, more intelligent supply chains, and better use of scarce resources in the enterprise.

However, while this ever-evolving space can increasingly alter the modern-day workplace, it’s imperative for businesses to become cognizant of  the security threats it poses, new IDC research has warned. As part of its FutureScape prediction series for 2015, the market intelligence firm explored the impending IoT era across the spectrum, including security, cloud, network capacity, as well as the influence of millennials.

“The Internet of Things will give IT managers a lot to think about,” explained Vernon Turner, IDC Senior Vice President of Research. “Enterprises will have to address every IT discipline to effectively balance the deluge of data from devices that are connected to the corporate network. In addition, IoT will drive tough organizational structure changes in companies to allow innovation to be transparent to everyone, while creating new competitive business models and products.”

IDC’s top 10 predictions for Internet of Things include:

IoT and the cloud: Within the next five years, more than 90% of all IoT data will be hosted on service provider platforms as cloud computing reduces the complexity of supporting IoT “data blending.”

IoT and security: Within two years, 90% of all IT networks will have an IoT-based security breach, although many will be considered “inconveniences.”

IoT at the edge: By 2018, 40% of IoT-created data will be stored, processed, analyzed, and acted upon close to, or at the edge, of the network.

IoT and network capacity: Within three years, 50% of IT networks will transition from having excess capacity to handle the additional IoT devices to being network constrained with nearly 10% of sites being overwhelmed.

IoT and non-traditional infrastructure: By 2017, 90% of datacenter and enterprise systems management will rapidly adopt new business models to manage non-traditional infrastructure and BYOD device categories.

IoT and vertical diversification: Today, over 50% of IoT activity is centered in manufacturing, transportation, smart city, and consumer applications, but within five years all industries will have rolled out IoT initiatives.

IoT and the smart city: Competing to build innovative and sustainable smart cities, local government will represent more than 25% of all government external spending to deploy, manage, and realize the business value of the IoT by 2018.

IoT and embedded systems: By 2018, 60% of IT solutions originally developed as proprietary, closed-industry solutions will become open-sourced allowing a rush of vertical-driven IoT markets to form.

IoT and wearables: Within five years, 40% of wearables will have evolved into a viable consumer mass market alternative to smartphones.

IoT and millennials: By 2018, 16% of the population will be Millennials and will be accelerating IoT adoption due to their reality of living in a connected world.

 

Report: Smart cities to quadruple by the year 2025

The number of global smart cities is expected to grow from 21 in 2013 to an estimated 88 in 2025, according to a new report from IHS Technology. These smart cities will possess energy efficient infrastructures as well as keep a maintained focus on security and streamlined transportation efforts.

Lisa Arrowsmith, IHS Associate Director, defines a smart city as a city that has deployed “the integration of information, communications and technology (ICT) solutions across three or more different functional areas of a city.” She further adds that these implementations could be in the realms of mobile and transport, energy and sustainability, physical infrastructure, governance, and safety and security.

Among the 21 cities IHS currently categorizes as smart are five in the U.S. – San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago and New York. According to the study, “Asia-Pacific will account for 32 smart cities of the total in nine years’ time, Europe will have 31, and the Americas will contribute 25.”

“London, for example, is retrofitting both residential and commercial buildings to lessen carbon dioxide emissions,” the study notes. “The city is also adopting charging infrastructure to support the introduction of 100,000 electric vehicles.” In Santander, Spain, it adds, “soil-humidity sensors detect when land requires irrigating for more sustainable water use.”

The IHS report titled, “Smart Cities: Business Models, Technologies and Existing Projects,” also finds that the current $1 billion worldwide annual investment in smart cities will grow to over $12 billion by the year 2025. The report continues on to demonstrate the need for smart cities as a response to increasingly congested and polluted cities.

With a global population that is becoming overly urbanized, certain resources are becoming scarce in these densely populated areas. Smart cities and tech based city organization can focus on these limited resources and assure they are managed in a way that provides the best solutions for inhabitants.

While today’s smart cities may not be the most cost-friendly option when reorganizing an urban area, Arrowsmith lauds the possibilities that smart planning could provide. She notes the collaboration of public and private sectors could unquestionably boost a local economy. Incorporating technology applications into city planning could in turn create jobs or even foster a high tech culture within the municipality.

The glowing example of a global smart city is Santander, Spain. After obtaining an EU grant, the aging port town organized a team to install over 12,000 sensors within city limits. BusinessWeek’s Carol Matlack writes that the sensors track everything from surfing conditions to traffic congestion. The city has even placed sensors deep in the ground of their parks to measure soil humidity and can then properly determine sprinkler usage. In all, Santander is a prime example of how technology and communication can work in unison to better organize the smart city of the future.

With the example Santander has provided as well as what plans for cities across the globe have in store, it’s certainly not far-fetched to believe in the projections provided by the IHS report. You can read the IHS document in its entirety here.