Digital Lifescapes

Smart home, beacon, wearable, and other nascent Internet of Things (IoT) applications -- including energy management and smart cities -- are to propel the wireless IoT connectivity market forward, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. The market's trend toward multi-protocol connectivity IC adoption will ease development time, boost scale, and reduce complexity and cost for manufacturers across these different sectors in the years ahead. "2015 witnessed a growing trend toward the development of multi-protocol connectivity SoCs for the IoT, some of which support both Bluetooth Smart and 802.15.4," said Andrew Zignani, industry analyst at ABI Research . ABI analysts believe the devices that incorporate multi-protocol chipsets will stand the tests of time. While a product might utilize Bluetooth in the short term, a device manufacturer may want to switch to Thread in the future or have the ability to talk to multiple connectivity protocols onc...

Imagine a world where all manner of electrical and electronic devices are connected together via a wireless link -- that's the Internet of Everything. The installed base of active wireless connected devices will exceed 16 billion in 2014, that's about 20 percent more than in 2013, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. Moreover, the number of devices will more than double from the current level, with 40.9 billion forecast for 2020. "The driving force behind the surge in connections is that usual buzzword suspect, the Internet of Things (IoT)," said Aapo Markkanen, principal analyst at ABI Research . If we look at this year’s installed base, smartphones, tablets, PCs, and other hub devices still represent 44 percent of the active total, but by the end of 2020 their share is likely to drop to 32 percent. In other words, 75 percent of the growth between today and the end of the decade will come from non-hub devices -- such as wireless sensor nodes ...

Having thoroughly researched the topic, IDTechEx has mapped the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem, where things are collaborating with other things without human intervention at the time. These things have internet protocol (IP) addresses, micro-controllers for local data processing and they sometimes include sensors. The Internet of People (IoP) is very different -- a renaming of the world of smartphones and other internet-enabled personal electronics, it is maturing but adding wearable personal devices and new human interfaces. Thirdly, there are many other dedicated identification and sensor systems for things but these do not have IP addresses at the item level, using other data standards or proprietary systems. According to the  IDTechEx assessment, these are  NOT truly IoT as a result -- but some include them as part of the topic which leads to widely varying market forecasts. IDTechEx see two main application sets emerging for IoT – consumer application...

Wireless communication capabilities will become embedded in more and more everyday devices over time. The resulting connectivity applications seem limitless. Moreover, the growing demand creates a huge opportunity for wireless chipset manufacturers. Annual wireless connectivity chipset shipments across Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, NFC, GPS, and ZigBee show no sign of slowing down, reaching almost nine billion annual shipments by 2019, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. Had it not been for combo chipsets and integrated platforms the number of chipsets shipped would have been even higher. Cumulative chipset shipments from 2010 through 2014 will have reached over 21 billion -- from 2015 to 2019, cumulative shipments will almost double to over 39 billion. "That is over 60 billion wireless connectivity chipsets that will have shipped over the ten year span from 2010 to 2019, driven by the emergence of new device types," said Philip Solis, research director at ABI Res...

The Internet of Things will likely become a mainstream phenomena in a few key industries before it penetrates the whole global networked economy. Therefore, it will be important to share those early-adopter applications with others, so that more broader market development can occur over time. Infonetics Research released excerpts from its new "M2M Connections and Services by Vertical" report, which provides market size, analysis, and forecasts for machine-to-machine (M2M) connections and services by technology, vertical, and geographic region. "M2M is one of the fastest-growing major new segments for service providers," said Godfrey Chua, analyst at Infonetics Research . "We forecast global revenue from M2M services to more than double between 2012 and 2017, from just under $15 billion to $31 billion." That being said, what's often overlooked about M2M is that it will be delivered to the world by way of a portfolio of access technologies -- some ...

Remote controls for a variety of consumer electronics in the home will start to get smarter as they're being redesigned for much greater utility. The new features and capabilities will help to redefine the inherent usability and value that these devices provide. In 2013 10 percent of the remote controls shipped with major home consumer equipment will be RF-enabled. This is just the beginning of a new trend -- the quest for the ultimate remote control. Over the next five years there will be a major surge in RF technology adoption for remote controls as vendors look to differentiate their products -- driving growth in smart home services, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. While at the same time RF solutions continue to fall in price, implementations become more simplified and lower powers are achieved. "RF technology has been considered for use in remote controls for many years but its adoption has been limited by a lack of perceived need among device...

Smart home installations can include multiple networks -- both wired and wireless. Typically, the wireless standard used for device interconnection is either Wi-Fi or ZigBee, depending on the application. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, ZigBee enabled device shipments will grow to almost 400 million units per annum in 2018 -- with demand being driven by the adoption of this wireless technology to enable new smart home services. "Since 2006 we have seen steady growth in ZigBee enabled device shipments. The initial major growth engine was the smart meter market which adopted ZigBee, particularly for U.S. smart meter rollouts," said Peter Cooney, practice director at ABI Research . While smart meters still account for a significant amount of the market, today it is home entertainment devices -- in particular pay-TV set-top boxes, which are the main driver of ZigBee market growth. In 2012 home entertainment took over from smart meters as the largest...

​Smart homes will become a key component of growth with the Internet of Everything. By 2018, annual home automation device shipments will exceed 351 million -- growing at a CAGR of 78 percent, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. ZigBee dominated IEEE 802.15.4 and claimed the top share of node shipments at 4.5 million, narrowly beating out proprietary protocol offerings. "ZigBee is enjoying success in the home automation market because, as an open standard technology, multiple IC vendors are creating ZigBee chipsets," said Adarsh Krishnan, Senior analyst at ABI Research . Quite simply, open standard technologies are considered less risky and highly scalable when compared to the closed ecosystems of proprietary RF technologies. Another wireless communication protocol that has gained traction in the home automation market is Z-Wave. Recent managed service initiatives that offer home automation as a service are using the Z-Wave protocol to connect low-po...

Wireless connectivity technology continues to evolve to accommodate the communication needs of a variety of new digital devices. As an example, annual shipments of 802.15.4 enabled devices are forecast to grow more than five times from 2012 to 2018 -- with a CAGR of over 30 percent. ZigBee continues to be the primary driver toward standardization and interoperability and will see further strong growth across many markets, accounting for almost 80 percent of total 802.15.4-enabled device shipments in 2018. "It’s been quite a turbulent time for ZigBee over the last couple of years," said Peter Cooney, practice director at ABI Research . Markets that seemed to be sure-fire bets for rapid growth -- such as smart meters -- have not delivered what was expected, while smart home markets continue to flourish. There are a number of markets that the ZigBee Alliance and its members have targeted, and many standards have been developed to address them. To date, most of the focu...

Perhaps you have seen the research that Cisco IBSG has shared about the Internet of Everything phenomenon. Others are now participating in the global market assessment, with the intent to gain a better understanding of the applications and associated upside potential. The latest data from ABI Research on the Internet of Everything (IoE) shows that there are more than 10 billion wireless connected devices in the market today -- with over 30 billion devices expected by 2020. "The emergence of standardized ultra-low power wireless technologies is one of the main enablers of the IoE, with semiconductor vendors and standards bodies at the forefront of the market push, helping to bring the IoE into reality," said Peter Cooney, practice director at ABI Research . The year 2013 is seen by many as the year of the Internet of Everything, but it will still be many years until it reaches its full potential. ABI believes that the next five years will be pivotal in its growth and ...

According to the latest market study by ABI research, the wireless sensor network market, led by the ZigBee standard, grew ten-fold from 2007 to 2010 and exceeded 45 million annual shipments in 2011. "Strong growth is expected for 2012 and beyond as ZigBee pervades the home automation and home entertainment markets, while Smart Meters continue to be rolled out across the globe,” said Peter Cooney, wireless connectivity practice director at ABI Research . Smart metering is the largest market for ZigBee in 2012 and will continue to be the major market growth driver as global roll outs of smart meters continue apace. ZigBee/RF4CE use in the home environment will also be a major growth driver. Home automation and home entertainment together are forecast to grow to over $300 million per annum by 2017. Until quite recently ZigBee/RF4CE has been the lead choice for interoperable low power wireless connectivity in the home automation and home entertainment markets and one look at ...