Asia-Pacific Internet of Things Market, 2019

Government Initiatives Accelerating the Adoption of IoT Solutions

The APAC Internet of Things (IoT) market is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29.3% between 2018 and 2025 to reach a size of $424.2 billion by the end of the forecast period. This study has sized the spending across the entire IoT value chain comprising chips, modules and sensing, connectivity, enablement platform, system integration and applications. As industry participants attempt to ascend the value chain by seeking growth opportunities in system integration, application enablement platforms and applications, they are increasingly turning to advanced capabilities like AI at the edge and Blockchain-based data trading as competitive differentiators. Companies have continued to deepen cross-vertical collaborations and partnerships, a phenomenon that was first identified in the previous edition of this report. Indeed, ecosystem-based selling is emerging as the most sought out form of a Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy by players in this space. Governments in the region are ramping up the deployment of large-scale smart city projects by investing in IoT infrastructure, platforms, and applications.

In the private sector, certain industries remain critical in driving the adoption of IoT, particularly transportation & logistics, manufacturing and utility verticals. However, over the past 12 months, we have observed sustained interest in IoT in verticals thought to be niche – including agriculture and retail. While IoT deployments in these verticals are still at an early stage, we predict that they will emerge as key drivers for IoT adoption as a result of acute and growing manpower shortages.

The growing popularity of cloud computing has also been beneficial to IoT adoption as many cloud IaaS providers have developed powerful IoT functionalities to their core offerings. With the cost of cloud computing falling by at least 50% per year, the cost of cloud-hosted IoT solutions has also dropped, opening the door for smaller enterprises to consider IoT solutions.

In conclusion, while we have noted that most decision-makers have come to terms with the notion that leveraging on the exponential increase in data is the way forward to gain a competitive edge for some time now, this year, the APAC IoT market has seen a reduction in costs, a proliferation of vendors, an expansion in-network coverage, and the introduction of advanced capabilities – all of which are prompting more companies to take the first step in adopting IoT solutions to avoid being overtaken by their competition.