In 2014 IoT was sitting at the top of the Gartner Hype Cycle, with predictions of 50 billion connected devices and $20 trillion in investment by 2020 ramping up the excitement. Now, the dust is settling, and we can see a much clearer picture of how companies benefit from IoT, which companies are leading the pack, and just how far IoT has moved away from the buzz – and from hype to reality.
The Numbers
In 2016 Berg Insight released its first IoT project overview, covering the 300 largest cellular IoT deployments. The projects included accounting for approximately 156 million active cellular subscriptions, which corresponded to as much as 39.2% of the total number of global cellular IoT connections at the end of 2016. More than 30 deployments had already surpassed one million subscriptions and the top ten projects accounted for more than 60 million units.
Now Berg Insight has released another report, which looks at the top-350 largest cellular global IoT deployments through the end of 2017, which account for more than 213 million active cellular connections – or as much as 33% of the total number of global IoT connections. More than 40 of those deployments topped 1 million units – and the top ten accounted for more than 80 million units. And Berg estimates that the number of these 350 projects alone will grow to 521 million units by 2022.
The Industries
Today, companies are not just scaling their IoT solutions, they are understanding that IoT is an essential part of their business strategy. But who are the biggest players when it comes to cellular IoT deployment?
