The Internet of Things (IoT) market in Australia is set to explode to $4b by 2020, according to a forecast by Telsyte. Australian households are expected to have 29 devices connected to the internet by the end of the decade, nearly tripling the current number of 11, the report says.
Telsyte managing director, Foad Fadaghi, said IoT devices are more than just phones and tablets. He says they include; “Smart air conditioners, smart TVs, set top boxes (like apple TV), games consoles.”
In 2015, the consumer market in Australia for IoT was estimated at $231 million by Telsyte. The business strategist has forecasted that number to jump to $4 billion in five years.
According to the report, the biggest growth will come in 2018 when a range of new products hit the market as manufacturers integrate wireless chipsets into their products.
Telsyte identified four main themes critical to the acceptance of IoT in Australian households;
Integration: Devices need to function in the existing ecosystems of smartphones and applications.
Modular Approach: The ability for consumers to add devices to their IoT environment that can interact with each other.
Intelligent Features: Devices that go beyond user driven outcomes and self-monitoring through cloud based machine learning.
Voice Control and Recognition: Already popular with early adopters, it will be an important mechanism for device control.
IoT will be a “new battleground for telecommunications companies as they seek to differentiate themselves in an increasingly price competitive marketplace,” the report says.
The two main barriers to the success of IoT will be consumer concerns regarding cyber security and privacy, according to Telsyte.
The managing director told us which of the two is more critical “Depends on the demographic, more affluent households have higher security concerns, however both are considered critical success factors for vendors and service providers.
More devices also presents an opportunity for hubs to control them. Fadaghi says; “we forecast the smart hub market to reach $69M in 2020, but it remains a small part of the overall market, as much of the functions of these hubs might eventually sit in the cloud.”
This article originally appeared on B&T’s sister business site www.which-50 and was written by its editorial intern Joe Brookes.
