European Spending on IoT to Grow by 20% in 2019

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Revenues for the European Internet of Things (IoT) market are forecast to increase by 19.8% year on year to reach $171 billion in 2019, according to the latest update to the Worldwide Semiannual Internet of Things Spending Guide from International Data Corporation (IDC). Total spending on IoT solutions in Europe will maintain a double-digit annual growth rate throughout the 2017–2022 period and is expected to surpass $241 billion in 2022. The forecast is based on IDC's research into the expanding IoT technology market, which addresses business investment opportunities and use case implementations across a spectrum of industries.

While the appetite for IoT solutions is evident across the entire region, Western Europe will account for the lion's share of the market. Germany will be the European IoT champion in 2019, with spending exceeding $35 billion. Adoption of IoT technology in other European countries will also soar, with France and U.K. each spending over $25 billion, followed by Italy with $19 billion. Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) will account for 7% of the total European IoT revenues in 2019.

"We’re still just scratching the surface of how powerful IoT solutions can be when combined with the massive scale of IoT endpoints, world-class connectivity and advanced technology," said Milan Kalal, program manager at IDC. "That said, organizations across industries are gradually experiencing that driving business outcomes with IoT requires not only new technologies and expertise in areas like edge infrastructure, wired and wireless networking, security, and edge-to-cloud architectures, but also viable use cases that deliver short-term results and help drive a strategic IoT innovation road map."

The industries that are forecast to spend the most on IoT solutions in 2019 are discrete manufacturing ($20 billion), utilities ($19 billion), retail ($16 billion), and transportation ($15 billion). IoT spending among manufacturers will be largely focused on solutions that support manufacturing operations and production asset management. In the utilities sector, IoT spending will be dominated by smart grids for electricity, gas, and water. Omni-channel operations will be the single largest use case within the retail sector. In transportation, two thirds of IoT spending will go into freight monitoring and logistics solutions. The industries that will see the fastest annual growth rates throughout the 2017-2022 period are retail (18.5%), healthcare (17.9%), and state/local government (17.1%).

All that said, the true leader for IoT spending in 2019 will be the consumer segment, with revenues exceeding $32 billion. The largest consumer use cases will be related to the smart home, personal wellness, and connected vehicles. Within smart home, home automation and smart appliances will both experience strong spending growth over the forecast period and will help make consumer the fastest-growing industry segment overall with a five-year CAGR of 20.0%.

Forecasting spending growth by use case over the 2017-2022 period provides a picture of where other industries will be making their IoT investments. These include in-store contextualized marketing (retail), airport facility automation (transportation), smart buildings (professional services), agriculture field monitoring (resource industries), and smart home (consumer).

"We are now experiencing a dichotomy scenario across European IoT adopters: While a few advanced users are leveraging IoT technologies in full swing, there is still a large portion of users struggling to prove and replicate initial pilots and proof of concepts," says Andrea Siviero, a research manager at IDC.

Hardware will be the largest technology category in 2019 with revenue of $66 billion led by module and sensor purchases. IoT services will be close behind at $60 billion going toward traditional IT and installation services as well as non-traditional device and operational services. IoT software spending will total $35 billion in 2019 and will see the fastest growth over the five-year forecast period with a CAGR of 18.9%. IoT connectivity spending will total $10 billion in 2019.

The Worldwide Semiannual Internet of Things Spending Guide forecasts IoT spending for 14 technologies and 82 named use cases across 20 industries in nine regions and 53 countries. Unlike any other research in the industry, this comprehensive guide was designed to help vendors clearly understand industry-specific opportunities for IoT technologies today.

About IDC Spending Guides

IDC's Spending Guides provide a granular view of key technology markets from a regional, industry, use case, and technology perspective. The Spending Guides are delivered via pivot table format or custom query tool, allowing the user to easily extract meaningful information about each market by viewing data trends and relationships.

About IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC's analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading media, data and marketing services company that activates and engages the most influential technology buyers.