Needless to say,
IoT has become a growing phenomenon due to its various benefits. As a result spending on IoT products and solutions is on the rise in markets across the world.
Middle East and Africa (MEA) are no exception.
According to the
latest forecast by IDC, IoT spending in the region is set to reach US$847 billion this year, a year-on-year growth of 15.9 percent compared to last year. For the long term, the figure is set to reach $17.63 billion by 2023, the report shows.
By IoT technology category, hardware will account for the majority of spending, followed by IoT services, software and connectivity, the forecast shows. By industry, the ones that are expected to spend the most on IoT this year are
manufacturing, government, consumer, transportation and utilities, it adds.
“IoT adoption in the MEA region is expected to accelerate over the coming years as organizations from both the public and private sectors look to improve their provision of customer services, expedite decision making, improve the quality of products and services, accelerate their time to market, reduce costs, and increase productivity,” IDC said.
The study comes as no surprise as the aforementioned industries are robust and booming in the MEA region and can hugely benefit from IoT. This is especially so for the manufacturing and oil and gas sectors.
Manufacturers increasingly rely on connected devices and the data they generate, collectively known as
IIoT or industrial internet of things, to increase product quality and productivity and reduce downtime. AOI systems working in conjunction with edge computing for example can detect defects in less than a second. Sensors connected to machinery can sense an impending machine failure and notify operators immediately, allowing them to respond accordingly.
In oil and gas, which the Middle East has no shortage of, IoT can also come in handy, especially in mid-stream applications characterized by delivery pipelines that last thousands of kilometers. It’s common endpoint devices and sensors are placed every few kilometers to detect leaks or other issues, and the data is sent back to the command center for control and monitoring.
IoT markets in other regions
As for other regions, reports indicate noticeable growth in IoT as well. For example Europe, which is often placed with MEA to form EMEA as a single region, is expected to see the IoT market reaching $432.8 billion in 2024 from $108.7 billion in 2016, at a compound annual growth rate of 18.32 percent, according to Goldstein Research.
“Europe has high adoption of IoT technology in aviation, utilities, production and transportation industry. France government is investing in achieving excellent infrastructures and is focusing on using renewable energy fuel whereas Swedish government is spending on medicine and bioscience,” the report says.
By application, consumer electronics segment is set to grow at a CAGR of 18.73 percent, while implementation of IoT in fleet management and asset tracking is hugely impacting the Europe transportation industry, the report said. “Transportation and logistics segment is estimated to capture 23 percent of total revenue of IoT in Europe over the forecast period, and industrial automation has reduced the operating cost and increased the production of the manufacturing industry,” it said.
As for the North America IoT sensor market, it accounted for $3.6 billion in 2017 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 21.6 percent to account for $21.1 billion in 2027, according to a report by Markets and Research.
Connected cars were cited as a major growth driver. “Factors including the growing application of IoT and connected devices are driving the North America IoT Sensor market,” the report said.