Council Post: Why Now Is The Time For Industry To Unlock The Full Potential Of IoT

When British technologist Kevin Ashton coined the phrase "internet of things" (IoT) in 1999, the world was only just getting acquainted with the nascent network of networks and how to access and use its many applications. In the more than two decades since, it has grown increasingly difficult to imagine a world in which our economies and communities were not supported and connected via the World Wide Web and the devices we use to access it. The number of firms that have incorporated IoT technologies into their businesses grew from 13% in 2014 to about 25% globally in 2019. In countries such as the United States, Germany, France and China, the rate of IoT adoption among enterprise-size commercial organizations exceeded 85%, according to a 2019 survey by Microsoft. And recent analyses from IDC predicted there will be 41.6 billion internet-connected devices by 2025, as worldwide commercial and consumer spending on IoT will exceed $1 trillion within the next three years.