According to a new forecast from IDC Canada, the Canadian Internet of Things (IoT) addressable market will be worth more than $6.5 billion by 2018. That’s a lot of things.
Popularized in recent years by technology vendors such as Cisco Systems, Internet of Things is a term for the network of the growing range of devices that will be embedded with electronics, software, sensors and connectivity to allow them to exchange data with control systems, operators and each other. More and more “things” will become connected, from smart toasters to heart monitoring implants.
IDC Canada reports that IoT spending in Canada is poised for takeoff. In the research firm’s new report, Canadian Internet of Things 2015–2018 Key Addressable Use Case Forecast by Industry, the components, processes, IT support, and connectivity for the IoT market were analyzed across 11 vertical markets. IDC cautions the $6.5 billion figure represents the value of 36 defined top use cases for IoT that IDC has identified on an industry basis, and not the total size of the market itself.
“Over the next 10 years, the Internet of Things market will see significant vertical-focused growth. To tap into this fast-growing market, IT vendors will need to pinpoint the largest and fastest-growing industry opportunities and create solutions that address the unique business processes specific to each industry use case” said Nigel Wallis, IDC Canada’s research director for IoT and vertical markets, in a statement.
Wallis said the IoT market will really take off in Canada in 2015, with IDC forecasting very high but still linear growth. It sees spending on the key identified use cases rising from $2.88 billion in 2013 to $6.5 billion in 2018, for a compounded annual growth rate of 18 per cent.
That will outpace the global IoT market, which IDC sees growing by 12.5 per cent in the same period, from US$1.3 trillion in 2013 to US$3.0 trillion in 2020. By 2020, IDC projects approximately 30 billion autonomous “things” attached to the Internet. Leading verticals for potential IoT adoption will include manufacturing, healthcare, transportation, and consumer, with the fastest growing projected to be consumer, manufacturing, and insurance.
Wallis cautioned that IoT growth in Canada could be inhibited by security and privacy; cost and our traditional conservatism toward emerging technologies.