Consumer electronics and smart building technologies will drive growth in the Internet of Things (IoT) market, as the total number of connections hits 27 billion by 2025, according to new research.
Annual growth in IoT connections will average 16 percent per year in the period through to 2025, rising from six billion last year.
The report by Machine Research predicts the total IoT market will generate over 2 zettabytes of data by 2025, with most from consumer and home devices.
The percentage using short-range wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi, Zigbee and power-line communication will remain steady, at 72 percent, but the overall numbers will swell as a result of higher penetration of connected gadgetry, wearable devices, and security and automation products for buildings.
Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) connections such as Sigfox, LoRa and narrow-band LTE will comprise around 11 percent of total IoT connections in 2025, said Machina Research.
Cellular IoT connections will increase from 334 million at the end of 2015 to 2.2 billion by 2025 – around eight percent of total IoT connections, of which the majority will be LTE-based.
The connected car sector, covering in-car entertainment, diagnostics and road management systems, will drive this growth in cellular IoT, contributing around 45 percent of all cellular IoT connections, including both factory-fitted connections and aftermarket devices.
Other growth areas for cellular IoT will come from digital billboards and CCTV.
At the same time, cellular IoT will account for less than a percentage of total wireless data traffic in 2025.
Machina Research predicts total revenue from the IoT will reach $3 trillion by 2025.