IoT Revenue May Reach $357 Billion By 2018

10 IoT Development Best Practices For Success

Internet of Things revenue is expected to soar 16.1% by 2019, as US companies look to leverage the technology that provides connected data sharing to remote task-oriented capabilities, according to an IDC report released Wednesday.

In the years leading up to 2019, IDC says it expects IoT revenue is expected to climb to $357 billion.

The use-cases that will capture the greatest revenue growth in the US from 2015 to 2019 are in-store contextualized marketing, connected vehicles, and insurance telematics, according to IDC. Other large IoT use-cases in terms of US revenue will be remote health management, smart grid electricity use, and smart homes.

"We see strong opportunities across many industries. For example, in highly instrumented verticals like manufacturing and transportation, large data sets are used to optimize operational processes and extend the life of high capital cost assets. In other sectors like healthcare and consumer, IoT technology is being used to produce benefits that improve quality of life," Marcus Torchia, research manager of IoT for IDC's Customer Insights and Analysis team, said in a statement.

Samsung Electronics, for example, unveiled plans to invest $1.2 billion in IoT research and development over the next four years in the US, with a focus on melding the physical and digital worlds into one to improve the quality of life for consumers.

Companies like Samsung are expected to invest more than $232 billion in IoT hardware, software, services, and connectivity this year, according to IDC.

The top three industries expected to pony up the largest swath of IoT investments this year include manufacturing, with $35.5 billion; transportation, with $24.9 billion; and the cross-industry segment, with $31 billion. The cross-industry segment represents IoT uses that are common to more than one industry.

[See 8 IoT Operating Systems Powering the Future.]

Here are IoT use-cases across the three industry segments that are capturing the most investments from US companies, according to IDC:

"The long term opportunity for IoT vendors is helping to identify and create immediate and residual benefits for end-users through their technologies," Torchia said.