Strategy Analytics: IoT to reach 50 billion devices

The total number of connected and Internet of Things (IoT) devices will approach 50 billion during the 2020s, driven by the smart home.

This is according to new research by Strategy Analytics, which claims that nearly 20 billion IoT and connected devices will be deployed worldwide by the end of this year, and a further 10 billion will be added over the next four years.

“The original connected device, the PC, now represents only 5% of the total market, which illustrates how the internet has permeated so many aspects of our lives,” said David Mercer, Strategy Analytics principal analyst.

The report predicts that smart home devices will overtake smartphones by 2021 as a share of deployed connected and IoT devices.

It also claims that the Internet of Things will grow by 17% in 2017, but annual growth will decline to 9% by 2021.