IoT market to rocket 30 per cent in 2016

Six million 'things' to be connected to the internet each day next year

The Internet of Things (IoT) market is growing so fast that by next year, 5.5 million "things" will be connected online every day.

That is according to Gartner, which talked up the future of the market at its Symposium event in Barcelona this week.

The analyst claims that in 2016, some 6.4 billion things will be connected globally, a figure that will rise to 20.8 billion in 2020.

In all, the IoT will support total services spending of $235bn (£155.6bn) in 2016 – up 22 per cent from this year.

Yesterday, IDC released figures on the big data market and said spending on the technology will reach $50bn by 2019.

Gartner said today that the IoT will provide a big opportunity for enterprises, although the consumer segment will have a bigger installed base.

By 2020, some 13.5 billion consumer "things" will be connected, while in the enterprise, there will be 7.2 billion IoT devices.

IoT in the enterprise will be split into two categories, Gartner said: generic devices that are used in multiple industries – such as light bulbs and air conditioning – and vertical-specific devices that are found in particular industries, such as specialist hospital equipment.

Gartner analyst Jim Tully said: "Connected things for specialised use are currently the largest category. However, this is quickly changing with the increased use of generic devices. By 2020, cross-industry devices will dominate the number of connected things used in the enterprise."