Internet of Things Devices To Increase 30 Percent in 2016

The number of "things" connected to the Internet will increase by 30 percent from this year to next, according to market research firm Gartner, to reach a total of 6.4 billion, a total that will balloon to 20.8 billion by 2020.

Approximately 4 billion of those Internet-connected things will be used by consumers in 2016 and about 13.5 billion will be for consumer use in 2020, according to the company. That's up from just over 3 billion in 2015 and about 2.28 billion in 2014.

"Gartner estimates that the Internet of Things (IoT) will support total services spending of $235 billion in 2016, up 22 percent from 2015," according to a news release. "Services are dominated by the professional category (in which businesses contract with external providers in order to design, install and operate IoT systems), however connectivity services (through communications service providers) and consumer services will grow at a faster pace."

In terms of spending on hardware, consumer uses will also make up a large chunk at $546 billion in 2016, but the majority of spending will be on things for use in specific industry verticals, at $612 billion. Spending on cross-industry connected devices is forecast by the company to reach $201 billion. However, consumer spending on IoT hardware will outpace vertical-specific spending throughout the latter half of the decade, according to Gartner's forecast, to overtake it by 2020. That year the company predicts consumers will spend a whopping $1.5 trillion on IoT hardware, while companies will spend just $911 billion on vertical-specific IoT hardware and $566 billion on cross-industry IoT hardware.

About the Author

Joshua Bolkan is contributing editor for Campus Technology, THE Journal and STEAM Universe. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • two large brackets facing each other with various arrows, circles, and rectangles flowing between them

    1EdTech Partners with DXtera to Support Ed Tech Interoperability

    1EdTech Consortium and DXtera Institute have announced a partnership aimed at improving access to learning data in postsecondary and higher education.

  • Abstract geometric shapes including hexagons, circles, and triangles in blue, silver, and white

    Google Launches Its Most Advanced AI Model Yet

    Google has introduced Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental, a new artificial intelligence model designed to reason through problems before delivering answers, a shift that marks a major leap in AI capability, according to the company.

  •  laptop on a clean desk with digital padlock icon on the screen

    Study: Data Privacy a Top Concern as Orgs Scale Up AI Agents

    As organizations race to integrate AI agents into their cloud operations and business workflows, they face a crucial reality: while enthusiasm is high, major adoption barriers remain, according to a new Cloudera report. Chief among them is the challenge of safeguarding sensitive data.

  • stylized AI code and a neural network symbol, paired with glitching code and a red warning triangle

    New Anthropic AI Models Demonstrate Coding Prowess, Behavior Risks

    Anthropic has released Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4, its most advanced artificial intelligence models to date, boasting a significant leap in autonomous coding capabilities while simultaneously revealing troubling tendencies toward self-preservation that include attempted blackmail.