IoT devices to triple to 38 billion by 2020

Devices connected to the Internet of Things (IoT) will increase by more than 285% from 13.4 billion in 2015 to 38.5 billion in 2020, according to new research, "The Internet of Things: Consumer, Industrial & Public Services, 2015-2020," released July 29 by Juniper Research.

The report projects that industrial and public-service sectors, such as retail, agriculture, smart buildings and smart grid applications, will be the majority of the IoT device base. For example, it adds that Michelin and John Deere have successfully used IoT to transition from being product vendors to becoming service-based companies.

Despite these gains, most enterprises are still learning to connect their devices and systems to the IoT. Also, interoperability hurdles due to conflicting standards continues to slow progress, but there are signs that standards bodies and alliances are beginning to engage to overcome them. "We're still at an early stage for IoT," says the report's author Steffen Sorrell. "Knowing what information to gather, and how to integrate it into back-office systems remains a huge challenge."