The smart cities market is expected to grow from $410.8bn in 2020 to $820.7bn by 2025, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.8%, according to a report from Markets & Markets.

The adoption rate of smart cities technology is expected to grow due to the increasing demand for public safety and communications infrastructure, growing number of citizen empowerment and engagement, and rising urban population.

Transportation is a critical and essential part of any smart city project, as it is the main stake for fast and sustainable growth of an economy, allowing people to travel swiftly from one destination to another, alongside enabling goods and services to be effectively delivered. Smart transportation provides an essential boost to the existing and new transportation infrastructural projects considering several factors, such as the rapid increase in urban demographics and the growing environmental concerns.

Transportation systems are designed and implemented for smart cities and combine technologies to provide platforms that deliver real-time online information about the traffic flow and passengers and commuters. These also enable efficient monitoring and smooth running of public as well as freight traffic to and from cities, thereby reducing delays and cutting down overhead costs, such as maintenance. They also allow better management of peak traffic conditions, as well as predict and prepare for heavy and lean traffic periods.

Smart building services allow building administrators to plan and implement smart building technology with little effort. Smart buildings implemented with the help of professional service providers can be very effective and efficient, says the report.

The benefits of employing smart building services include the need for implementing technology that improves building performance, reduces energy and reduces operational expenditure. The complex nature of various smart technologies deployed across cities and the need for custom designs to implement smart services in different cities are driving the demand for consulting, and deployment and integration services.

Apac is expected to be the main revenue contributor to the smart cities market. The growth in this region is expected to be driven by the increasing demand for connected vehicles, building energy optimisation and distribution management system. Moreover, many small players are catering to the Apac market, making it one of the fastest-growing regions. The deployment of smart cities in different segments, such as smart transportation, smart buildings, smart utilities and smart citizen services, is already on the rise in Apac.

Key and emerging market players include AWS (USA), Vodafone (UK), Cisco Systems (USA), IBM (USA), Siemens (Germany), Microsoft (USA), Hitachi (Japan), Schneider Electric (France), Huawei (China), Intel (USA), NEC (Japan), GE (USA), Fujitsu (Japan), Oracle (USA), SAP (Germany), Ericsson (Sweden), ABB (Switzerland), Honeywell (USA), Google (USA), AT&T (USA), Nokia (Finland), Itron (USA), Verizon (USA), Accenture (Ireland), TCS (India) and Alibaba (China).