IoT to generate 20 trillion gigabytes of data by 2025

Internet of Things (IoT) has been gaining quite a fair bit of attention in the headlines recently. SO what can we expect out of this emerging technology trend?

The Internet of Things is expected to generate more than 20 zettabytes, or 20 trillion gigabytes, of data by 2025, underlined by the increase in broadband penetration and access speeds, according to researched unveiled by Seagate Technology.

The research shows multiple device ownership and increased Internet speeds as being key drivers of cloud adoption and IoT.

Asia Pacific broadband speeds will be fastest in the world 
According to the research, broadband speeds in the region are expected to be the fastest in the world and quadruple to 87 Mbps in a decade, compared to a forecasted average of 72 Mbps globally. This means that a two hour high definition movie can be downloaded in 7 minutes as compared to approximately 28 minutes today.

While Asia Pacific leads in terms of speed, broadband penetration rates in 2025 are expected to remain disparate and varying between countries in the region. Developed markets like South Korea (99 percent), Singapore (95 percent) and Hong Kong (95 percent) can be seen as achieving ubiquity, while India, Indonesia and other Asia Pacific countries lag behind with penetration rates of 10 percent or less.

Majority of data will be generated by non-PC devices
The research shows that more than 40 billion devices will be connected to the Internet by 2025, and the majority of the IP traffic will be generated by non-PC devices. 64 percent of those connections will be used by machine-to-machine devices, 26 percent from smartphones, 5 percent from tablets, 4 percent from feature phones and only 1 percent from laptop PCs.

The automotive sector represents the fastest growing segment for IoT, growing from 200 million units in 2014 to more than 3.5 billion by 2025. Innovations that are already in today’s top range cars such as connected on-board diagnostics and automated safety systems will become more pervasive. At the same time, consumer IoT is projected to be the largest segment, reaching 13 billion devices by 2025, partly due to the growth of devices like smart watches and activity trackers.

According to the study, 11 million units of smart watches were sold in 2014, while its simpler sibling – activity trackers, shipped 32 million units. The total number of wearable devices in use is estimated to reach 170 million units by 2017, and that industry will be worth $10 billion in 2016.

Sales of fitness wearables in particular, will triple from 70 million devices in 2013, to 210 million in 2020.

In addition, the research identified smart garments often worn by athletes, like the smart shirts worn by Germany’s World Cup-winning soccer team, as having the greatest potential for growth, with an estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 48 percent predicted to take place between 2015 and 2020.