Two separate reports released last week are predicting wildly different estimates for the growth of the IoT market. Reporterlink sees the global market hitting US$1256.1bn by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 10.53%, whereas Fortune Business Insights has it hitting $1102.6bn by 2026 at a CAGR of 24.7%.
 
Part of the problem is they are working from different starting points. Reportelrlink put the market at $690bn in 2019 and Fortune worked from a base of $190bn in 2018.
 
These massively different numbers suggest they are defining IoT in different ways, though it is not clear from the reports how this has happened. Both say they covering hardware and software and both are looking at the market from a global perspective.
 
There are even differences when they look at regional analysis. For example, Reporterlink says North America is set to witness significant growth.
 
“North America is expected to be a prominent market, owing to the growing role of IoT among the significant revenue-generating end-user industries of the region, driven by the deployment of connected cars, smart energy projects, home automation and focus on smart manufacturing,” says Reporterlink. “Additionally, rapid digitalisation across industry verticals and technological advancements have further fuelled the growth of IoT in this region.”
 
The Fortune report, on the other hand, sees only “moderate growth” in North America. It sees Asia Pacific as leading the market: “Asia Pacific held $74.5bn revenue in 2018 and is set to lead the market throughout the forthcoming period. China majorly contributes to this growth as it is considered to be the largest IoT market.”
 
Both reports acknowledge the effects the Covid-19 pandemic will have on the market.
 
“Owing to the recent outbreak of Covid-19, IoT investment and deployments are certainly slowing down,” says Reporterlink. “However, with major disruptions in global healthcare and supply chains, governments, hospitals, insurers and logistics providers are having to react quickly for a more connected world that could help better address the current crisis and mitigate future ones.”
 
However, it said the vendors were taking opportunities in the Covid-19 pandemic situation by offering emerging technology to the healthcare organisations. For instance, at the end of January, the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center used California-based connected health start-up VivaLNK’s continuous temperature measuring device to monitor Covid-19 patients, which therefore reduced the risks of caregivers being exposed to the virus.
 
The Fortune report says the emergence of Covid-19 has brought the world to a standstill.
 
“We understand that this health crisis has brought an unprecedented impact on businesses across industries,” it says. “However, this shall pass. Rising support from governments and several companies can help in the fight against this highly contagious disease. There are some industries that are struggling and some are thriving. Overall, almost every sector is anticipated to be impacted by the pandemic.”