IoT: A market keeping its promise of 10% annual growth thanks to fast-growing industrial markets

IDATE DigiWorld is publishing its own IoT market database, covering all of the largest markets in Europe and around the world (including Brazil, the United States, China, Japan…) and 14 vertical markets (agriculture, manufacturing, electronics, utilities, logistics, transport, retail, smart home, smart city, sport, health, communication).

“We expect to see 10% annual growth, and reach 35 billion units in 2030”, says lead IoT analyst, Samuel Ropert, “with an especially dynamic Asia-Pacific region, which already represented 48% of the total market in 2017. And so dynamic that we expect to see China overtake the United States in 2021.”

Europe tackling the market with each country leveraging its own particular strengths

In Europe, Germany has taken the lead thanks to its strong positions in the automotive, robotics, smart home and sport/wellness markets. The UK stands out in the smart city, retail and security markets in particular, while Italy is especially strong in the smart metering market, followed by France and Spain.

So it is still impossible to talk about the markets’ imminent maturity, given the ongoing massive disparities between the different sectors:

• The utilities (energy, water, etc.) market is among the most advanced, driven by national regulations and public policies.
• Still only nascent today, automotive will be the second biggest IoT market in 2030 driven by the regulation (Such as eCall in Europe) and of course the advent of autonomous cars.

Products connected thanks to wireless, IoT cellular and LPWA technologies

In terms of IoT technologies, standardised wireless access technology which already dominated the market in 2017 will remain the prime access technology in 2030, due to the forecast strong development of smart home, sport/wellness and electronic gadgets applications.

But cellular IoT is forecast to enjoy the highest rate of growth (of more than 55% a year up to 2030), while LPWA (LoRa, Sigfox) technologies will also forge themselves a substantial foothold, and will grow by 16% by 2030.