IoT numbers vary drastically: devices and spending in 2020

No doubt about it: The Internet of Things is going to have an impact on our lives and economy. But digital transformation is and will be a challenge for many businesses out there. How will the market develop? How much are companies going to spend on IoT technologies, how many devices will be connected in the not too distant future? The opinions vary partly drastically. We did some research and brought all the numbers from different studies together.

Information technology is one of the fastest developing technologies worldwide. What was state-of-the art just five years ago, might already look ancient today. Think about the smartphone: Just ten years have passed, since Apple introduced the first iPhone and changed the way we communicate drastically. There was no Whatsapp prior 2009. Smart Home installations were just displayed in proof of concepts and consumer products like smart lighting or smart voice assistants are just becoming popular these days.

Check out our roundup of the “IoT in numbers”, devices and spending in 2020.

While IDC predicts 1.290 US$ being spent on IoT technologies, BGC is a bit more conservative with “just” 267 billion US$.

However, making predictions about the further development of IoT technologies might seem like a look into a crystal ball. Maybe that’s why it’s not surprising, that different studies see the further development of the Internet of Things differently. But whatever will turn out to be true in the end, one thing is for sure: The Internet of Things will make an impact.

The predicted number of installed IoT devices by 2020 shows an uncertainty of almost 20 billion devices. While ABI research predicts 47 billion devices (by 2021), Bain and Company “just” predicts 20 billion devices.

Sources: Global IoT spending 2020:

Sources: Connected Devices Worldwide 2020