IoT; an ingredient to boost global economy and electronics biz in 2014

Date: 12/12/2013
Internet of Things (IoT) is fast emerging as next big wave in networking. The big impact is expected in year 2014-15. The traditional Internet had some shortfalls to connect every device to the net. Now it is upgraded with IPv6 to support connection of trillions of devices to Internet, and also the short range wireless protocols such Zigbee, WiFi and Bluetooth and as well as cellular radio network is now enhanced with increased bandwidth and speed enabling wireless IoT.

The more significant adoption of IoT is driven by consumer market. CES 2014 can be the right venue at the beginning of the year 2014 to witness some IoT enabled product demos. The home appliances and the home (smart home) itself can be monitored remotely using IoT technology from any internet appliance. This market can surge-fast anytime in 2014 to 2015, most probably in 2014 itself. Automotive is also a big market, one example is the vehicles on the road can communicate with each other to cruise at same speed on a highway. In fact there is no application not going to be benefited by IoT. In some of the application such as Agriculture, the IoT technology allow the farmer to monitor the crop from the mobile phone. The application of robots can be enhanced by using IoT technology. Medical is also an important area to employ IoT in patient monitoring. Manufacturing industry is already using wired and wireless n/ws to connect machines and sensors/devices. IoT helps in achieving even more automated advanced manufacturing through m2m (Machine to Machine communications) and can save lots of resources.

So all this transform into significant business benefits to companies. Individual can manage everyday tasks (both personal and on-job) more easily helping them to increase in productivity. Example, the parents of a toddler can remotely monitor the baby on their phone. So the investment in IoT enabled gadgets is just not going to be for the reason of craze, but a need.

For electronics and semiconductor industry, IoT is the real hope to bounce back to double-digit growth in 2014 irrespective of other market conditions. If other market conditions turn favourable, the year 2014 and 2015 are going to be big years for electronics and semiconductor industry. Embedded Systems industry to gain very significantly from the IoT tech adoption. There is lot of embedded software need to be written/rewritten for billions of devices. The industrial electronics' style of designing will be adopted in smart home electronics. Short range wireless ICs and microcontroller (MCU), and sensor market to see big jump in revenues due to IoT. In fact the MCU, wireless transceiver IC and sensor are going to be sold as single module for IoT applications. World's number one chip vendor Intel has formed a new group to accelerate and broaden its reach into IoT market segments and applications. Intel owned embedded software company Wind River has given the lead to develop IoT solutions. Not only Intel all the leading vendors in semiconductor domain and embedded systems/software domain are getting prepared to serve this market.

Market research inputs on IoT:
Gartner has predicted The Internet of Things (IoT), which excludes PCs, tablets and smartphones, will grow to 26 billion units installed in 2020 representing an almost 30-fold increase from 0.9 billion in 2009. Gartner said that IoT product and service suppliers will generate incremental revenue exceeding $300 billion, mostly in services, in 2020. It will result in $1.9 trillion in global economic value-add through sales into diverse end markets.

The incremental IoT supplier revenue contribution from IoT in 2020 is estimated at $309 billion, as per Gartner.

International Data Corporation (IDC) has said it looked at the components, processes, and supporting IT and connectivity for the Internet of Things and expects IoT technology and services spending to generate global revenues of $4.8 trillion in 2012 and $8.9 trillion by 2020, growing at a compound annual rate (CAGR) of 7.9%.

The market enablers identified by IDC include Ongoing development of smart cities, cars, and houses, Enhanced connectivity infrastructure, An increasingly connected culture.

IDC says it expects the installed base of the Internet of Things will be approximately 212 billion "things" globally by the end of 2020, which will include 30.1 billion installed "connected (autonomous) things" in 2020. IDC estimates IoT sales revenue to reach $7.1 trillion in sales by 2020, according to IDC.

Market researcher Frost & Sullivan says "2014 is set to be the year when the focus of both IT buyers and providers shifts to the Internet of Things (IoT). The explosion of IoT activity in 2014 and beyond will be driven by the nexus of low cost sensors, connectivity networks, cloud computing, advanced data analytics and mobility." On the subject of providing reliable connection, Frost & Sullivan says mobile network operators (MNOs) will address will be around reliable connectivity and enterprise grade cloud computing services. Without reliability and performance qualities, IoT adoptions will be disappointing and affect the overall pace of development, adds Frost and Sullivan.

NXP is already selling its chip to monitor, manage and control every light bulb from any of your smartphone, tablet, PC or TV. You can create a light and musical show right from your smart phone using IoT. There are many semiconductor companies who have already launched products targeting IoT.

Here is a quote "The pieces of the technology puzzle are coming together to accommodate the Internet of Things sooner than most people expect. Just as the Internet phenomenon happened not so long ago and caught like a wildfire, the Internet of Things will touch every aspect of our lives in less than a decade. Are you ready for it?", this is from Kaivan Karimi, Executive Director—Global Strategy and Business Development, MCUs, Freescale Semiconductor.
You can read the white paper written by him titled "What the Internet of Things (IoT) Needs to Become a Reality", at the URL www.freescale.com/files/32bit/doc/white_paper/INTOTHNGSWP.pdf