2021 Total Cellular Internet of Things (IoT) Connections Breakdown by Connectivity Protocol, 2020–2026

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to reverberate in the Internet of Things (IoT) space. This Frost & Sullivan reforecast of the cellular IoT connections market indicates that there will be more than 3.46 billion active cellular IoT connections by 2026 (globally). In 2020, growth declined to 13.5%, with Asia-Pacific accounting for a large share of that growth. EMEA will be the slowest to recover – it will take until 2022 to return to previously forecast growth. The US market will bounce back in H2 2021.

This strategic analysis is part of Frost & Sullivan’s continued coverage of the global IoT market. Within this analysis, the company identifies the main application segments that generate revenue for cellular IoT service providers. Frost & Sullivan offers valuable insight that will help IoT ecosystem participants increase revenue and identify new growth opportunities.

The global market growth rate for IoT devices fell sharply from 30.4% in 2019 to 13.5% in 2020. This drop was due to the impact of COVID-19 as economies across the world saw declining investments in IoT and technology. In 2020, the Asia-Pacific market grew at 17.8% and the EMEA market grew by 2.5%, while the North American market slowed down to 3.0%.

Author: Dilip Sarangan