IoT devices seen at the Connected Business trade show in Lyon. (Photo : REUTERS/Robert Pratta)
Market analysts expect a significant increase of spending on Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. Most of the investments funds will come from retailers, which will spend an estimated amount of $2.5 billion in installation and hardware costs of new the IoT emerging technology.
Between 2015 and 2020, retail companies are expected to invest in IoT around four times the amount forecasted to be spent this year. According to a report titled "The Internet of Things: Consumer, Industrial & Public Services 2015-2020" by the marketing analyst agency Juniper Research, the spending on IoT will increase substantially more than the $670 million estimated last year.
According to the market analysis, IoT opportunities are expected to reach $300 billion annually by the year 2020. Nearly 70 percent of IoT units on the market at that time are likely to be composed of non-consumer devices. Most of the retailers will spend their money on business-related Internet of Things hardware rather than consumer-centric.
According to Computer Business Review, retailers will mainly focus their investments on both Bluetooth Beacons and RFID (radio frequency ID) tags. The Bluetooth Beacons can provide push relevant information to consumers' mobile devices, while the RFID tags can reduce labor and dynamic pricing costs by providing real-time asses tracking to retailer companies. According to market experts, the top retailer brands using the emerging IoT technology will be able leverage it in order to gain a substantial market advantage.
Companies will be able to improve overall customer experience and gain access to in-depth business insight by linking devices through Bluetooth Beacons and RFID tags. The report also suggested that cyber security will start to focus more on identifying network breaches.
IoT security models will require more resources allocated on tracking than prevention. In these networks such security breaches are almost unavoidable, so cyber security will have to undergo plenty of change in order to adapt. Rather than concentrating on prevention, enterprise security experts will shift their focus on means to track the intruders.
Analyst Steffen Sorrell of Juniper Research said that top retailer companies such as Zara and Target are already starting to implement the RFID asset tracking technology leverage the benefits offered. Sorrell added that today the beacon industry is growing rapidly; offering consumers contextually relevant information on their mobile devices. According to the market analyst, this technology can significantly enhance in-store experience of customers.
