Vodafone, a global leader in IoT with 80.9 million connections, has announced the findings of its latest IoT Barometer. Surveying 1,758 businesses worldwide, the Barometer finds that more than a third (34 per cent) of businesses now use IoT, that 70 per cent of these adopters have moved beyond pilot stage and 95 per cent of adopters are seeing the benefits of investment in this technology as it moves into the mainstream.
While use cases for IoT are varied, ranging from medical exoskeletons to connected tyres, the research has found that IoT impacts businesses regardless of size and sector. Sixty per cent of businesses that use IoT agree that it has either completely disrupted their industry or will do so in the next five years. Eighty-four per cent of adopters report growing confidence in IoT, with 83 per cent enlarging the scale of deployments to take advantage of full benefits.
The report also grades businesses in IoT usage by assessing strategy, integration and implementation of IoT deployments. Globally the report found that 53 per cent of adopters fall into the top two levels out of five. Regionally, the Americas is the most advanced, with 67 per cent of adopters falling into the top two levels, compared to 51 per cent in APAC and 46 per cent in Europe. This suggests that businesses in the Americas are progressing faster than those in other markets, moving from individual projects to coordinated, strategic programmes.