- IoT use cases that saw the slowest spending growth in 2020 are air traffic monitoring, freight monitoring, manufacturing operations, production asset management, and connected oil field exploration
- Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) spending on Internet of Things (IoT) was deeply impacted in 2020 due to the pandemic hitting major economies in the region
Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) spending on IoT expected to reach $288.6 Billion in 2021 as per IDC. Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) spending on Internet of Things (IoT) was deeply impacted in 2020 due to the pandemic hitting major economies in the region, with spending growth descending to 7.1 per centYoY in 2020 – down from the 12.5 per cent forecasted prior to COVID-19.
Recent release of the IDC Worldwide Semiannual Internet of Things Spending Guide indicates a rebound to double-digit growth in 2021 and achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.7 per cent over the 2020-2024 forecast period in Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan).
Bill Rojas, Adjunct Research Director at IDC Asia/Pacific said, “The current COVID-19 pandemic has slowed the growth of IoT spending in 2020 while at the same time highlighting the importance of public priorities to be rearranged in IoT for public healthcare and telemedicine, remote/online education, disaster management, automated manufacturing, online retail, food delivery, logistics and transportation and smart home services.”
Industries which were highly impacted by the pandemic (personal & consumer services, transportation, and discrete manufacturing resources) suffered reduced IoT investments in line to their reduction in overall IT spend. With resumption of economic activities in the region due to better control of pandemic, these industries spend are expected to rebound back in 2021 and achieve double digit growth in the forecast period to 2024.
Fastest spending growth in 2020 are healthcare use-cases
The report added that IoT use cases that see the slowest spending growth in 2020 are air traffic monitoring, freight monitoring, manufacturing operations, production asset management, and connected oil field exploration which follows a similar pattern. With spending growth affected by the impact of the pandemic on the host industry.
The use cases that will see the fastest spending growth in 2020 are healthcare use-cases like bedside telemetry, remote healthcare monitoring and use-cases which reduces human interactions like omni-channel operations, advanced payment/shopping etc. Long term focus on environmental conservation will lead to use cases such as electric vehicle charging and environmental monitoring detection to grow by 17.8 per cent and 17.7 per cent respectively in the forecasted period.
 Sharad Kotagi, Associate Market Analyst at IDC Asia/Pacific said, “Although COVID-19 continues to impact the economies in Asia/Pacific, more than two thirds of the organizations intend to retain their IoT budgets at same or increased level – 50% of which will increase the IoT investments. This is because enterprises view IoT as a key platform to build new business models, helping them evolve and grow in the new normal with focus on people and infrastructure.”
