Report shows 80 billion things connected to the internet up to 2020
The Internet of Things, where any item can connect to the internet to retrieve information to enhance its intrinsic value, is set for massive growth over the next seven years according to a new report.
The scope of the Internet of Things is broad, including communicating devices and M2M, and going beyond M2M by enabling any object to connect and leverage the internet (Internet of Objects). If an object does not contain the electronics required to connect directly to the internet, it connects to the internet with the use of an intermediate device.
According to this definition, 15 billion things (machines, connected devices and objects) were connected to the internet in 2012, up from four billion in 2010, said IDATE, which has published its report on the Internet of Things market.
According to Samuel Ropert, project leader of the report: 'In 2020, there will be 80 billion connections, where Internet of Objects will represent 85% of the total Internet of Things, ahead of communicating devices with 11% and M2M with only 4%.'
In terms of growth, Internet of Objects still leads with a 41% CAGR between 2010 and 2020, followed by communicating devices with 22% CAGR and M2M with 16% CAGR.
The Internet of Things encompasses multiple and heterogeneous building blocks. Underlying M2M and Internet of Objects run over different hardware and communication technologies. While RFID and 2D barcodes are used to interact with objects in the Internet of Objects concept, M2M application will rely on several different networking technologies that allow the machine to communicate and transmit the data it has generated (or is meant to receive, depending on the application and the machine).
While cellular technology is often selected for M2M deployments, new communication technologies (better designed for traditional metering M2M applications) have entered the market in recent years and could act as game changers in the near future (SigFox, Neul, etc). Nevertheless, implementing an open Internet of Things requires a new kind of architecture with scalable naming and addressing (ONS) technologies and new sustainable tools to access the data, as the Internet of Things is designed to browse vast (M2M and Internet of Objects) databases.
M2M and Internet of Objects are driven by vertical markets and will therefore be impacted by vertical environments, but adoption levels vary between the different vertical industries. Business maturity also varies considerably from one industry to another. Indeed, both M2M and Internet of Objects applications rely on cost saving objectives for users, so ROI time is critical.
Implementation is not always geared to the same objectives. While the textile industry targets item-level deployments for inventory, manufacturing-type industries like automotive and aeronautics use RFID for quality processes across the supply chain where different parts are assembled to form a finished product (only the RTI is tagged, not the part itself). The leading verticals in terms of connected objects (Internet of Objects) will be the pharmaceutical and textile industries by 2020.
