IDC: 2017 global investment in the Internet of Things will exceed 800 billion US dollars

The market research company IDC released a report this week that the overall global IoT spending in 2017 will increase by 16.7% year-on-year, which is slightly more than US$800 billion. The report predicts that by 2021, global spending on the Internet of Things will reach 1.4 trillion US dollars. This includes investments by companies in IoT hardware, software, services, and network connections.

IDC said that areas such as manufacturing, freight monitoring and productive asset management will attract the most investment. Smart pipe network technology will be used for electricity, gas and tap water, and smart building technology is expected to attract considerable investment this year.

The IoT field that attracted the most investment in 2017 (based on market share)

Long-tail investment in smart home technology is expected to grow substantially in the next five years. The same is true in areas such as airport facility automation, electric vehicle charging, and in-store environmental marketing.

IDC said that from a technical point of view, hardware will attract the largest investment, followed by services, software and network connections. However, in the expected time period, although hardware investment will nearly double, its growth rate is the slowest among all these aspects.

Software and service expenditures are growing the fastest, and application software will account for more than half of all IoT software investments. IDC said that hardware investment will focus on modules and sensors that connect terminal devices to the network.

Carrie MacGillivray, vice president of IDC's Internet of Things and Mobile Business, said: "Discussions about the Internet of Things are leaving the number of Internet of Things devices. The true value of the Internet of Things is when software and services are combined. , Will be able to capture, express, and manipulate data generated by IoT terminals."

In terms of different industries, manufacturing and transportation will still be the industries that receive the most investment, at 183 billion and 85 billion U.S. dollars, respectively. Utilities ranked third, with an estimated investment of US$66 billion.