In the mid 1990s, when the internet was starting to be used by general consumers, we used to talk about a vision of the connected world. Even in the days when “internet” meant “web browser and email on a PC with a tortuously slow dial-up connection” there were enough signs that connectivity would move beyond this simultaneously miraculous yet antiquated model and affect a mass of devices and services that hadn’t yet been invented. There were many false starts, even in those days, as forward-thinkers tried to offer, as an example, streamed music to standalone radios which, somehow, were expected to perform in a pre-broadband era.

The connected world is now well and truly upon us, as our latest research shows. By the end of this year nearly 12 billion devices around the world will rely on internet connectivity, and only 10% of them are PCs. They have been passed, inevitably, by smartphones, but the “Internet of Things” (IoT), which includes M2M, smart objects, smart grid and smart cities, is the single biggest segment, accounting for more than 40% of connections.

By 2020 we expect the global installed base of connected devices to have reached more than 33 billion, which will equate to 4.3 devices for every person on the planet, up from 1.7 today. By that time the mix will have shifted even further away from PCs (and smartphones). The biggest growth opportunities over the rest of the decade lie in smart home, wearables and IoT. Beyond that, developers and planners from all industries can work on the assumption that internet connectivity will be ubiquitious, in many parts of the world, and this should whet our appetites for another phase of expanding and exciting possibilities.

David Mercer