The Internet of Things (IoT) market is already worth billions of dollars. One estimate suggests that the global IoT market’s revenue could increase from $157 billion in 2016 to $457 billion in 2020, driven by the growth of smart cities, industrial applications, connected vehicles, and healthcare.
Of these sub-segments, smart cities and industrial applications will clock the fastest compound annual growth rates (CAGR) of 26% and 24%, respectively. This is great news for IoT specialists Sierra Wireless (NASDAQ: SWIR) and Cypress Semiconductor (NASDAQ: CY), as both companies are targeting these fast-growing niches within the IoT space, setting them up for a strong performance in 2018.
The smart city concept is currently in its infancy, even though it only came into being a few years ago. But 2018 could be the year when this concept starts gaining widespread adoption thanks to government sponsorships.
Canada has just announced funding for 72 smart cities, and India’s housing minister is confident that the country will start witnessing the deployment of smart cities by June 2018. Similarly, Vietnamese capital Hanoi will start spending $4 billion on a smart city project slated to begin in 2018.