Gartner forecasts that 8.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2017, up 31 percent from 2016, and will reach 20.4 billion by 2020. Regionally, Greater China, North America and Western Europe are driving the use of connected things and the three regions together will represent 67 percent of the overall Internet of Things installed base in 2017. The consumer segment is the largest user of connected things with 5.2 billion units in 2017, which represents 63 percent of the overall number of applications in use. Businesses are on pace to employ 3.1 billion connected things in 2017. While consumers purchase more devices, businesses spend more. In 2017, in terms of hardware spending, the use of connected things among businesses will drive 964 billion dollar. Consumer applications will amount to 725 billion in 2017 dollar. By 2020, hardware spending from both segments will reach almost 3 trillion. “IoT services are central to the rise in IoT devices – said Denise Rueb, research director at Gartner -. Total IoT services spending (professional, consumer and connectivity services) is on pace to reach 273 billion dollar in 2017”.
