IoT to boost connectivity, sensor sub-systems

Web-connected things will account for 85 per cent of 29.5 billion Internet connections worldwide by 2020, according to IC Insights. This shall be the case assuming that missing Internet of Things (IoT) standards are developed over the next several years.

The sales generated by the connectivity and sensor sub-systems to enable this IoT will amount $48.3 billion in 2014 and grow 19 per cent in 2015 to $57.7 billion. By 2018, the market value of IoT sub-systems in equipment and Internet-connected things is projected to reach $103.6 billion worldwide, which represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21 per cent from $39.8 billion in 2013 (see chart below).

Market value of IoT function in things. (Source: IC Insights)

At the level of the ICs, discrete and sensor semiconductors that go into connectivity and sensor sub-systems IC Insights reckons the value was $3.9 billion in 2014. This is set to grow by 19 per cent in 2015 to $5.6 billion and rise to $11.5 billion in 2018 representing a CAGR of 24.3 per cent over the period 2013 to 2018.

The annual growth figure for 2015 is considerably lower than that provided by another market forecaster Gartner Inc., which predicted a CAGR of 30 per cent for the IoT chip market for the period 2013 to 2020.

IC Insights has dubbed the largest IoT semiconductor market segment "connected cities' by which it means smart electric grids, roads, streetlights and other public infrastructure applications.

The second-largest semiconductor IoT category—the industrial Internet—will catch up with the connected cities group, primarily due to high growth in factories, logistics and medical systems applications.

Semiconductor revenues for connected homes will be more than $1 billion in 2018 with a CAGR of 32.8 per cent from just $275 million in 2013. Connected automotive systems represent a high growth potential between 2013 and 2018 with annual semiconductor sales forecast to reach $1.5 billion worldwide, which represents a CAGR of 43.8 per cent through 2018. Semiconductor sales for wearable systems that connect to the Internet are projected to climb by a CAGR of 46.9 per cent to $528 million in 2018 from about $76 million in 2013.

IoT semiconductor sales by system segments. (Source: IC Insights)

ICs used in connections to the Internet of Things represented only 1 per cent of total integrated circuit sales in 2014. In 2018, IoT-related ICs are expected to account for about 3 per cent of the total $348.1 billion IC market that year.

- Peter Clarke
??EE Times Europe