IDC: European Spending on IoT to Grow by 20% in 2019

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 UK 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 a smart home, home automation and smart appliances will both experience strong spending growth over the forecast period and will help make the consumer the fastest-growing industry segment overall with a five-year CAGR of 20%.
 
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.