Metering.com 3 APRIL 2017
According to IoT analyst firm Berg Insight, global shipments of cellular IoT devices will grow at a CAGR of 22.7% to reach 530.1m units in 2022.
The strong growth is attributed to demand in China and the global adoption of connected car technology in the automotive industry. Berg Insight believes that “the maturity if the ecosystem is a crucial advantage for 3GPP-based standards in the IoT market,” says the release.
According to the report shipments are expected to grow from from 155.6 million units in 2016 to reach 530.1 million units in 2022.
Says Tobias Ryberg, senior analyst and author of the report, “LTE-M and NB-IoT are the latest in a long line of cellular standards already connecting hundreds of millions of devices worldwide. Alternative non-cellular LPWA technologies have a very long way to go before they achieve the same prominence”.
Berg Insight estimates that annual shipments of non-cellular LPWA devices for IoT reached 13.5 million units in 2016.
802.15.4 WAN accounted for 8.0 million units, while shipments of LoRa and Sigfox were around 4 million and 1.5 million units respectively. The vast majority of 802.15.4 devices are smart energy meters deployed in North America and other regions.
Communications technologies
Looking ahead, Berg Insight believes that LoRa and Sigfox will outgrow 802.15.4 WAN and achieve annual shipments in the range of 50–100 million units each by 2022. Based on initial feedback from the market, volume segments for non-cellular LPWA in the near to medium term will be asset tracking, buildings and security and smart cities, it said.
Writing on the growth of IoT-enabled devices and the regulatory and security concerns surrounding these devices David Coher, an independent contributor who works for a large utility in the US says, “We all know that IoT devices are being adopted on an impressive scale, with some estimates as high as 34 billion connected devices by 2020. These new devices will be utilised in our homes, at our offices, by the industrial sector and by our governments – all for different uses, depending upon the design, need and technological savvy of their users.”
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