IoT will rule mobile connections by 2018, Ericsson predicts

The Internet of Things (IoT) will overtake mobile phones as the “largest category of connected device” by 2018, Ericsson has predicted in its latest Mobility Report. The report said IoT, which is categorised as connected cars, machines, utility metres, remote metering and consumer electronics, will surpass standalone mobile phones in 2018, with growth in connected […]

The Internet of Things (IoT) will overtake mobile phones as the “largest category of connected device” by 2018, Ericsson has predicted in its latest Mobility Report.
The report said IoT, which is categorised as connected cars, machines, utility metres, remote metering and consumer electronics, will surpass standalone mobile phones in 2018, with growth in connected devices “driven by emerging applications and business models”, as well as falling device costs.
According to the report, IoT connected devices overall will hit almost 16 billion of a total 28 billion connected devices by 2021, Of those, ‘only’ 1.5 billion will have a cellular subscription, growing from approximately 400 million at the end of 2015.
Notably, the company’s forecast for 28 billion devices is well below its previously touted “vision” of 50 billion devices by a 2020 timeframe, which it backtracked on last year.
As well as falling device costs and innovative applications, Rima Qureshi, SVP and chief strategy officer at Ericsson, said deployment of 5G will contribute to forecasted IoT growth.
“From 2020, commercial deployment of 5G networks will provide additional capabilities that are critical for IoT, such as network slicing and the capacity to connect exponentially more devices than is possible today,” she said.
The company also reiterated a previously forecasted goal of 150 million 5G subscriptions globally by 2021.
Other highlights from the report revealed that smartphone subscriptions are expected to surpass those for basic phones in Q3 this year for the first time, and will apparently double from 3.4 billion to 6.3 billion by 2021. Smartphones accounted for close to 80 per cent of all mobile phones sold in Q1 2016.
Overall mobile subscriptions hit 7.4 billion in Q1 2016, and are growing 3 per cent globally, said Ericsson (compared to 5 billion actual mobile subscribers), with India seeing the largest rise in net additions in Q1 with 21 million adds, followed by five million in Myanmar.