IoT – Unfulfilled Expectations and Reality
The predictions about IoT market made during its peak of inflated expectations phase about 10 years ago were quite optimistic and forecasted 50 billion devices in 2020 [1][2] and total worldwide market revenues of around 1,8 trillion USD [3]. However, based on predictions from 2020 and 2021, the current IoT landscape in 2023 connects around 15 billion devices [4], while the worldwide market revenues are around 290 billion USD [5]. In this blog we try to ascertain why these expectations remained unfulfilled and what are the current prospects for IoT.
IoT troubles
There are several reasons which stood in the way of wide IoT adoption and its revolutionizing impact. The main technological issue was technology immaturity and fragmentation [6]. For instance, in smart home or smart building environments different mature standards are available, such as ZigBee, Z-Wave or Bluetooth. One standard would facilitate the adoption of IoT solutions, like WiFi did for wireless broadband connectivity. Additionally, one of the top requirements that IoT platform providers defined was infinite scalability [7]. But these efforts, creating scalable and horizontal IoT platforms which would connect devices from different environments and domains were not monetized in the end. Because most of the paying customers in IoT want vertical solutions (fleet management, smart metering, etc.) [6]. Consequently, a service layer is needed on top of IoT platforms to meet the customer needs. The companies which have not focused on vertical sector expertise are therefore gradually stepping out of the IoT business. Furthermore, quite a number of non-complete solutions was launched, with unsatisfactory user interfaces or security and privacy flaws. The vendors were more focused on proving their position in the value chain than delivering values for customers.
IoT reality
Even though the inflated predictions have not come true mainly due to the aforementioned issues, IoT is a reality today. Especially when considering vertical domains. A few years ago the focus was on achieving the connectivity of devices across multiple domains, i.e., achieving the horizontal IoT platforms and services. The majority of the projects was in the smart city domain [8]. But today, the verticals with most IoT revenue worldwide are consumer, government, transportation, retail, utilities (electricity, gas, A/C), health&social care and manufacturing [9]. The focus is now on more specific use cases. As a way forward, multiple recommendations are proposed [10]. There is a need for credible IoT, where providers offer tried-and-tested solutions to customers for their specific need. Furthermore, there is a need for managed IoT, offering the whole package to customer, from hardware, connectivity, device management, and analytics. The value of the IoT market is predicted to triple from 2020 until 2030.
Axiros and USP
In the IoT arena, Axiros offers products for IoT device management based on the Broadband Forum TR069 and USP (User Services Platform) protocols [11]. AXACT serves as a product which can make any device TR069/USP compatible. This enables seamless communication with Axiros monitoring and management solutions and consequently monitoring and managing any kind of device. In the process of installing AXACT, the most significant step is to map device data model to Broadband Forum’s data models. Upon the successful realization of this, the configured device will have the means to be managed or monitored by using any of the wide set of TR069/USP supported scenarios.
Written by Pavle Skocir
Pavle Skocir has been working in Axiros for one year as a Software Engineer in the delivery team and recently as a Solution Architect. Previously, he was an IoT enthusiast and worked on numerous applications in the smart home environment and on solutions for IoT interoperability. He also taught computer science courses at the University.
Related Info:
Knowledge Base: What is IoT?
References
[1] Evans, D. "The Internet of Things – How the Next Evolution of the Internet is Changing Everything", whitepaper, 2011.
[2] Vestberg, H. "50 billion connections 2020", press Release, 2010.
[3] Jyväskylä, U. "Forecast of worldwide revenue by connected devices until 2020 (in billion U.S. dollars)" [Graph]. In Statista. June 1, 2013. Retrieved October 02, 2023, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/669046/internet-of-things-forecast-revenue-connected-devices/.
[4] Transforma Insights. " Number of Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices worldwide from 2019 to 2023, with forecasts from 2022 to 2030" [Graph]. In Statista. July, 2023. Retrieved October 02, 2023, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1183457/iot-connected-devices-worldwide
[5] Transforma Insights. "Internet of Things (IoT) total annual revenue worldwide from 2019 to 2030 (in billion U.S. dollars)" [Graph]. In Statista. July 2023, 2020. Retrieved October 02, 2023, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1194709/iot-revenue-worldwide/
[6] Matt Hatton, William Webb. “The Internet of Things Myth”, Transforma Insights, 2020
[7] Transforma Insights. “Why does IoT need to be delivered as a managed service”, July 2023, available online: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-does-iot-need-delivered-managed-service-transforma-insights/?trackingId=Pc8v9iubUwjTZTquHijJMg%3D%3D
[8] IoT Analytics. The Top 10 IoT Segments in 2018 – based on 1600 real IoT projects, 2018, available online on https://iot-analytics.com/top-10-iot-segments-2018-real-iot-projects/
[9] Transforma Insights. Internet of Things (IoT) revenue worldwide from 2020 to 2030 (in billion U.S. dollars), July 2022, available online on https://www.statista.com/statistics/1183471/iot-revenue-worldwide-by-vertical/
[10] Matt Hatton. Five key take-aways from a 7-week IoT odyssey, 2022, available on:https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/five-key-take-aways-from-7-week-iot-odyssey-matt-hatton/
[11] Broadband Forum. Broadband Forum brings IoT home with new USP standard, 2018, available online on: https://www.broadband-forum.org/broadband-forum-brings-iot-home-with-new-usp-standard