Today Gartner released a report forecasting the number of connected “things” – i.e. excluding phones, tablets and computers that will be in use until the end of the decade. This year, Gartner estimates that there will be 3.7 billion devices in use, while this will jump to 25 billion by the end of the decade. This estimate is somewhat higher than that provided by Cisco, who predicted 7.3 billion devices by 2018. Gartner believes that the single three largest industry sectors will be utilities, manufacturing and government, and a previous report suggested that up to 50% of devices will originate in start-ups. The proliferation of smart meters and smart streets / lighting will drive usage in the utilities and government sector. However, it is unclear to me how the predicted 3.5 billion units in the automotive sector will be reached given that it is estimated that there are just over 1 billion cars on the road.
