Top 9 IoT Applications You Need To Know About
A Look At Applications Driving IoT Growth
With global Internet of Things spending expected to reach $1.2 trillion in 2022, according to IDC, it's clear that IoT has left the hype train.
While IDC expects consumer spending to drive IoT growth for the next several years, the enterprise will remain an important area as IoT innovation promises to change many aspects of work and life.
What aspects of work and life will IoT change? We looked at the top IoT applications driving growth in the enterprise, based on a report by IoT Analytics that analyzed 1,600 enterprise projects for 2018. What follows is a look at the top IoT growth segments with examples of real-world applications.
Smart city and engineering concept.
Smart City
According to a recent report by McKinsey, smart city applications have the potential to reduce fatalities, improve commute times, cut greenhouse gases, prevent crime and improve social connectedness.
In Sacramento, Calif., the city has partnered with Verizon on a smart city initiative that includes embedding sensors into the asphalt of city roads and combining their data with video camera feeds coming from traffic lights. The goal is to combine and analyze the data to help the city optimize the timing of traffic lights and make other infrastructure changes that will improve traffic flow.
Connected Industry
A majority of manufacturing executives said digital transformation is a top priority for them, according to a recent report by Deloitte. At the same time, the report found these companies are prioritizing the use of advanced technologies to improve existing processes rather than making larger changes.
One example of a manufacturer making larger changes through IoT is Texmark Chemicals, a Galena Park, Texas-based chemical manufacturer, that worked with solution provider CB Technologies to gain advanced IoT capabilities, including condition monitoring and predictive analytics for pumps and refinery equipment, video analytics for detecting plant issues, and lifecycle asset management tools.
Smart City
Connected Building
The connected building market is expected to grow at a staggering pace. According to a 2016 Deloitte study, the number of sensors deployed in the commercial real estate space will "grow at a compound annual growth rate of 78.8 percent between 2015 and 2020 to nearly 1.3 billion."
Intel in 2016 developed its first IoT-enabled smart building in Bangalore, India, with the goal of reducing the energy and water use, optimizing the use of employee space and increasing the comfort of employees. To solve these problems, Intel deployed approximately 9,000 sensors for tracking temperature, lighting, energy consumption and occupancy, and employed advanced building analytics.
Connected Car
Connected car sales worldwide are expected to reach 72.5 million by 2023, which is nearly triple was sold in 2015, according to research firm IHS Markit. Many new vehicles already contain multiple connected car features, including emergency dispatch, Wi-Fi connectivity, remote ignition, location tracking, gas price comparison, anti-theft geo-fencing and remote parking.
In October, Ford said it’s piloting a new vehicle-to-vehicle communication system called Intersection Priority Management. The system allows cars to share their position, speed and direction of travel with other nearby vehicles at a junction. The vehicles coming from different directions then automatically adjust their speed so that they can safely pass each other without coming to a stop.
Smart Energy
Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of smart energy solutions, according to a 2017 Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative survey, which found that nearly three-quarters of U.S. consumers know what smart meters are while 70 percent are aware of the smart grid.
Last month, German power supplier E.ON said it was partnering with Microsoft to create a digital dashboard that allows homeowners to monitor and control their electrical devices. E.ON's software solution, which is due next year, will use artificial intelligence, for example, to predict when the home is occupied so that it can maintain a desired room temperature in real-time. The system will also allow homeowners to sell excess energy they produce with an EV battery or PV system.
Connected Health
Nearly 75 percent of healthcare executives expect connected health, or the Internet of Health Things, to become a massively disruptive force within the next three years, according to a 2017 Accenture survey, and it's estimated to drive the global market value of the IoT application to $163 billion by 2020.
HCL Technologies, an India-based IT outsourcing company, said it developed a connected health platform for a large healthcare conglomerate that needed a way to analyze patient data from wearable products like the Apple Watch and Fitbit and tailor treatment according to individual patient needs.
Smart Supply Chain
Smart supply chain is expected to be a major driver for enterprise IoT innovation in the future, with a recent Forrester study reporting that IoT supply chain solutions will account for more than 25 percent of total IoT spending by enterprises by 2023. Many organizations are making major investments now.
The operators of the Port of Hamburg, for instance, have made several IoT investments to provide Germany's largest port with smart port infrastructure, intelligent traffic flows and intelligent trade flows. Through the use of sensors, the Hamburg Port Authority has been able to monitor various assets and infrastructure to optimize the use of space and manage traffic to reduce congestion. The port is also using smart storage systems that utilize a range of atmospheric sensors to improve cargo quality.
Smart Agriculture
Deploying IoT devices is becoming increasingly important to farmers as they seek to collect more data to help them run predictions on crops and livestock to improve yields and efficiency. The number of IoT device installations agricultural settings is expected to grow to 75 million in 2020 from 30 million in 2015, according to 2016 research published by BI Intelligence.
Freight Farms, a startup in Boston, uses IoT as the foundation in its Leafy Green Machine, a connected farm that is built entirely inside a 40-foot freight container. Using in-farm cameras and a variety of environmental sensors, farmers can remotely monitor and manage their crops from Freight Farm's app.
Smart Retail
Nearly three-quarters of retailers are planning to make investments in IoT by 2021, according to a 2017 survey by Zebra Technologies. That signals the increasing demand for IoT vendors and solution providers will see as retail stores adopt connected devices sensors to improve customer engagement.
Gorilla Technology Group is helping drive IoT adoption among retailers with its Smart Retail analytics product, which analyzes data from video and other sources to provide real-time information on shopper demographics, foot traffic trends, transaction data and heat maps. This allows retailers like Planet Sports in Indonesia to make dynamic decisions on staffing, inventory, merchandising and promotions.