ON World

Blazing IoT Markets with 450 Million WSN Chipset Sales in 2015

A recently published report by ON World finds that annual shipments of wireless chipsets used for sensing and control applications will approach half a billion this year due to plummeting component costs, open source software, developer platform advancements and growing demand for Internet of Things (IoT) technologies.

San Diego, CA July 28, 2015— Wireless sensor network (WSN) chipset shipments will approach half a billion this year due to due to plummeting component costs, open source software, developer platform advancements and growing demand for Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, according to global technology research firm ON World.
 
“With new tools, industry driven standards and dozens of WSN developer kits, wireless Internet of Things product creation cycles have accelerated from years to months,” said Mareca Hatler ON World’s research director.

A new generation of software applications and cloud technologies are being developed to capture this opportunity.  This is illustrated by IoT focused developer toolkits such as Apple’s HomeKit and Google’s Brillo along with a growing number of open source IoT initiatives such as the AllSeen Alliance, the Open Interconnect Consortium and mozaiq operations. 

Standards for IP addressable smart objects is a growing consideration.  One of the fastest growing initiatives is the IP-based wireless mesh Thread specification that was recently released to over 160 members of the Thread Group that was formed one year ago.  Others include Bluetooth 4.2 with support for IPv6, the in-progress Bluetooth Smart Mesh protocol, sub GHz IEEE 802.11ah along with ISA100.11a and the Wi-SUN Alliance.

Crowd-funding investment opportunities for IoT hardware/software products have created a continuous pipeline of innovative and disruptive WSN products.  Bluetooth Smart has the lion’s share of crowd-funded projects with hundreds of new products launched over the past two years.

WSN markets continue to be extremely diverse with many competing technologies.  IEEE 802.15.4, WiFi and Bluetooth Smart are the top three WSN technologies and their combined market shares will increase by 70% between 2014 and 2020 as standards based, multi-supplier systems continue to displace single supplier, proprietary alternatives.

As market opportunities for WSNs continue to expand beyond those where Internet access is ubiquitous, demand is increasing for low power wireless WANs. SIGFOX provides a low power wireless IoT network that is independent of existing cellular networks while the LoRA Alliance has released the first open standard, cloud-controlled IoT wireless WAN technology supported by over 70 members including cellular network providers.

By the end of this decade, annual shipments of WSN chipsets will surpass 2 billion up from 450 million this year.  By this time, 40% will be IP addressable using IPv4 and IPv6/6LoWPAN.

Based on input from 2,500 individuals, ON World’s report, “Wireless Sensor Network Markets,” analyzes the market forces and competitive landscape for 50 unique markets and provides extensive 5-year forecasts (devices, services and chipsets) for each market segment by application, geographical region and technology.  A few of the WSN technologies covered in the report include 802.15.4, ZigBee, 6LoWPAN, Thread, WiFi, Bluetooth, Z-Wave, EnOcean, ANT, LoRaWAN and others.

A free executive summary is available from ON World’s website.

About ON World:
ON World provides global IoT business intelligence. Our market research is used by Fortune 1000 companies, startups and investors worldwide.

Media contact:
Mary Purvis
e: purvis at onworld.com
ph: 858-259-2397

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