- This drop will result in the loss of 66 million potential Wide Area Network (WAN) connections over previous forecasts
- Asset tracking, inventory management, and condition-based monitoring will see greater long-term investment to build better businesses
There will be an 18 per cent drop in the net addition of IoT devices in 2020 as per research by ABI Research. A combination of manufacturing shut-downs, supply chain interruptions, and changes in connected product availability are some of the reasons for this drop.
Jamie Moss, research Director for M2M, IoT and IOE explains, “COVID-19’s impact on the IoT is three-fold. Some applications will experience a decline in shipments during 2020, ergo a reduction in the expected growth rate to their installed base. Yet, with no intrinsic change to their desirability and utility, they will return to expected growth in subsequent years. Some will experience a temporary stall in 2020 that will be compensated by increased activity immediately after, to bring things installed base expectations back into line. While others will experience fundamental shifts in demand, both positive and negative, for years to come as consumer and enterprise priorities shift in the light of COVID-19.”
Loss of 66 million potential Wide Area Network (WAN) connections
The report said that this drop will result in the loss of 66 million potential Wide Area Network (WAN) connections over previous forecasts. It said that proportionally, the most heavily impacted markets will be fleet and other heavy vehicles/equipment. As they are expensive, the enterprises are buying less of them for cost control. Fixed assets, digital signage, and kiosks will also face big impacts as they are driven by the entertainment and retail sector. this sector has been put on hold by the massive reduction in personal mobility and footfall, and increased emphasis on online shopping as the research.
Passenger vehicle and connected car markets are suffering
The report said that in the consumer space, the passenger vehicle and connected car markets are suffering considerably as people are staying in place. By spending more time at home, people are improving the function and comfort of that environment which is expected to boost smart home revenues.
Asset tracking, inventory management, and condition-based monitoring will see greater long-term investment to build better businesses. This will enable people to do more with less and to reliably run things remotely as per the report.
Moss adds, contemplating the diversity of the IoT and the pragmatic nature of its utility, “At ABI Research, we analyze 32 IoT applications, that’s 32 different types of connected device embedded in the fabric of the world around us. Each provides information on where things are, what their status is, and what actions we must take. To be forewarned is to be forearmed and the mass use of Microcontroller Unit (MCU)-based Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) sensors can help us make a safer world, where we can quickly respond to threats. The IoT is a market that grows naturally as and when it right for it to do so, to deliver planned results. And the need for guaranteed outcomes has never been more acute than now.”
