Smart Cities will have 1.1 billion connected devices by 2015

Smart homes and commercial buildings will be 45% of the connected devices

According to Gartner, a global provider of research and advice in the area of information technology, about 1.1 billion devices will be connected to Smart Cities in 2015, reaching 9.7 billion in 2020. This increase is due to the growth of urbanization, which is pushing mayors to balance the challenges of limited resources and concerns about sustainability.
 
Smart Homes and Smart Commercial Buildings will represent 45% of total connected devices in 2015, and 81% in 2020. "Smart Cities represent a huge revenue opportunity for Technology and Service Providers (TSPs), but they need to start planning, engaging and position your offerings now," says Bettina Tratz-Ryan, Vice President of Research at Gartner.
 
Gartner defines Smart Cities as urbanized areas where multiple sectors cooperate with each other, with the objective of achieving sustainable results through contextual analysis and real-time shared information between Information Technology and operational systems of specific sectors.
 
“Most of the Internet of Things (IoT) for Smart Cities will come from the private sector. This is good news for Technology and Service providers, as the private sector has shorter and more succinct purchasing cycles than the private sector. public", explains Bettina.

Base of connected devices installed in Smart Cities (in millions)

Source: Gartner  

Residents of residential areas will lead the trend due to increasing investment in Smart Home solutions, with the number of connected devices surpassing 1 billion units in 2017. Connected devices include smart LED lighting, health tracking, smart locks and various device sensors , such as motion or carbon monoxide detectors. Smart LED lighting will see the biggest growth in IoT applications, from 6 million units in 2015 to 570 million in 2020. Light will no longer be just a source of lighting and will transmit information on safety, health, pollution and personalized services. "Houses will migrate from interconnectivity to become informational and intelligent, with an environment of integrated services that will not only add value to the house, but also create an individually determined environment. The house will be a personal space that will provide assistance, being a kind of concierge for the individual", says Bettina.
 
In addition to residential IoT investments, there are a multitude of IoT deployments for private and public parking, traffic guidance, and traffic flow metering. An immediate benefit for transport will be the reduction of congestion. California and the UK are already implementing sensors and radio receivers, which are embedded at a point on the road to diagnose traffic conditions in real time. Another successful use of IoT in the city is smart parking. The City of Los Angeles, for example, has been implementing new parking meters, vehicle sensors for parking spaces, real-time parking guidance and a complete parking management system to direct demand during peak hours.
 
"E-mobility, charging stations and embedded IoT will create new opportunities for the Internet of Things in Smart Cities. We will have, for example, IoT in vehicles, with batteries communicating with the driver, informing the next charging station to define refueling deadlines ", says Bettina. New business environments and ecosystems will emerge. For now, automotive companies are investing in lighting poles with built-in charging stations to reduce investment in automotive charging station infrastructure. Sensors allow these companies to identify vacant parking spaces with charging stations for their customers, with information via mobile applications and on-board systems. They will also facilitate payments and transactions.
 
While investments in IoT hardware are critical for Smart Cities, the real revenue opportunity for Technology and Services providers lies in the services and analytics sector. “We expect that by 2020 many IoT TSPs will have increased their hardware revenues through services and software by more than 50%,” says Tratz-Ryan. Gartner also estimates that Smart Home security will represent the second largest services market in 2017, and that by 2020 the Smart Fitness and Health market will grow to approximately US$ 38 billion.
 
“We anticipate that commercial IoT implementations will be used by various industries, such as Energy, Environmental Services or Intelligent Journey Planning, which will offer TSPs the opportunity to monetize the IoT by building service models related to this technology”, explains Tratz. -Ryan. "A significant value contribution will come from the analysis of IoT information and data, which connects services to third-party transactions and billing records, and also enables subscriptions and on-demand services. This enables a multidimensional value chain with different partners."