IoT Technology: Market Potential and Likely Impact
Introduction
Internet of things is one the most emerging technologies that have taken the technology world into a new era of innovation and applications. Internet of things or IoT for short is a ubiquitous technology powered by devices that are connected to each other. IoT is a paradigm that is based on the power of radio frequency tags making the devices interact with each other through a central server that monitors and collects all the data. The devices can sense, network and process information with other devices. The whole process of devices communicating over the internet to achieve a specific objective is termed as the Internet of Things (Whitmore, Agarwal, and Da Xu, 2015).
IoT Characteristics
IoT has taken the computing prowess outside of the computer and far from the traditional desktop based computer application and programming. The rise of Radio networks and sensor-based technologies including RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) has powered the devices to share information and communicate with each other. Cloud computing is another underlying technology that is fueling the growth of this ubiquitous technology and facilitating the integration, monitoring and analysis of devices. Massive amounts of data are generated from IoT-based connected devices that are again stored in cloud storage (Gubbi, Buyya, Marusic, and Palaniswami, 2013). IoT has several characteristics that make it a viable technology in several fields. Some highlighted characteristics of IoT were Intelligence, Connectivity, Sensing, Expression, Energy and Safety. The IoT characteristics are defined by its capabilities that it provides for various usage. IoT has intelligence making devices smart with the use of Artificial Intelligence. Connectivity is at the core of IoT as it allows devices to connect to a network and share information. IoT makes it possible for incompatible devices to connect with each other, thereby providing a powerful underlying mechanism. Sensing is an IoT characteristic that allows it to be aware of surrounding devices to create an awareness of physical devices and provide users a meaningful, valuable and unique experience. Expression allows IoT to create interactive products that can relay useful information. Energy and Safety are the base characteristics of IoT where energy is part of IoT design along with safety, including secure and safe data transfer catering to all security paradigms (Xia, Yang, Wang, and Vinel, 2012).
IoT finds use in major areas and is being termed as a disruptive technology that will impact all the markets. IoT has found major growth since 2014 starting from North America and gradually expanding to different countries. By region, the possible growth markets of IoT include North America, Europe, and Latin America, Middle East and Africa (MEA) region and Asia Pacific (APAC). All the possible markets have huge potential for customizations of IoT as per client requirements, industry type additional market conditions (Press, 2014). The application areas of IoT include Home, Transport, Community, Government and Enterprise applications. One or the other field is present in all the countries across all regions. Most markets are waiting for a massively disruptive technology like IoT (Gubbi, Buyya, Marusic, and Palaniswami, 2013).
Market Analysis
The growth market identified for IoT are the ones that have already been affected by IoT presence in some form or other. A World Market forecast for 2013-2030 has identified North America and Europe as the biggest market for IoT from 2018-2030 (Press, 2014). The potential of IoT market for North America is kept between 250-400 million USD while that of Europe is at 150-425 million USD (Press, 2014). Asia-Pacific region is kept at a potential of 0.5-120 million USD (Press, 2014). The market analysis has been provided by year on year growth of IoT from 2013 to 2014 and the probable growth till 2018 (Press, 2014). In another study, it is estimated that across the high potential growth markets of North America and Europe, more than sixty-percent of home consumers plan to purchase some or other form of connected technology related to health, home or entertainment (Press, 2014). The market impact is further determined based on probable exposure of connected technology in various fields like home, government, transport, community, healthcare and enterprise. Security, Utilities, Appliances, Health and Entertainment are major areas that have potential IoT use in Home. Transport also has major avenues of IoT usage that includes parking, logistics, emergency, and highways. Government agencies include utilities, grid and remote monitoring. Enterprise is another major field of IoT application areas. Most importantly the expense of IoT is increasing in fields that have major adoptions across all the developed and developing markets across the globe (Mineraud, Mazhelis, Su, and Tarkoma, 2015).
Summary and Conclusion
The IoT has come up as a major technological advancement in the way things around us communicate behave and serviced. New models of customer service, client satisfaction and usability are being designed utilizing the powers of this new technology. The possible markets are huge with a big potential for implementation. Security of devices and transactional data is a major concern with IoT. Still the growth potential of IoT is massive, and it is being termed as a major disruptive technology that impacting all the fields and all the markets across the globe.
References
Gubbi, J., Buyya, R., Marusic, S. and Palaniswami, M., 2013. Internet of Things (IoT): A vision, architectural elements, and future directions. Future Generation Computer Systems, 29(7), pp.1645-1660.
Mineraud, J., Mazhelis, O., Su, X. and Tarkoma, S., 2015. A gap analysis of Internet-of-Things platforms. arXiv preprint arXiv:1502.01181.
Press, G., 2014. Internet of Things By The Numbers: Market Estimates And Forecasts. [online] Forbes.com. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2014/08/22/internet-of-things-by-the-numbers-market-estimates-and-forecasts/#4f45bf9a2dc9 [Accessed 23 Mar. 2016].
Whitmore, A., Agarwal, A. and Da Xu, L., 2015. The Internet of Things—A survey of topics and trends. Information Systems Frontiers, 17(2), pp.261-274.
Xia, F., Yang, L.T., Wang, L. and Vinel, A., 2012. Internet of things.International Journal of Communication Systems, 25(9), p.1101.
