The Internet of Things (IoT) market in the Middle
East and Africa (MEA) has been forecasted to defy the region's moderate
economic outlook by growing 19.6 per cent year-on-year in 2017 to total $7.8
billion, according to a recent update to the Worldwide Semiannual Internet of Things Spending Guide from
International Data Corporation (IDC), reports ITRealms.
Research analyst for
telecommunications, IoT, and digital media at IDC MEA, Mr. Wale Babalola,
disclosed this, noting that when compared favorably to the healthy 18.1 per
cent growth seen in 2016, the market's performance to the proliferation of
digital transformation initiatives across the region as businesses and
government entities strive to boost productivity and improve efficiency.
"The MEA IoT market is becoming increasingly competitive,
enabling organizations to source a range of innovative digital solutions aimed
at transforming business operations, improving the customer experience, and
enhancing employee engagement. Indeed, IoT now offers a myriad of
industry-specific solutions that can be easily deployed by organizations in a
bid to stay ahead of competition.
"IDC expects the manufacturing, transportation, and
utilities industries to see the highest levels of IoT-related spending in 2017
as organizations across these verticals look to digitalize their operations and
improve their value proposition across different lines of business. The
commitment of service providers, application developers, and OEMs to developing
purpose built end-to-end IoT solutions is serving as a major driver of the
growing adoption we are seeing across the region."
Manufacturing organizations will lead the way in 2017, with IDC
forecasting IoT-related spending of $1.3 billion for this vertical. The
'manufacturing operations' use case will account for more than 51% of this
investment. 'Manufacturing operations' is an IoT use case that supports
digitally-executed manufacturing and the way in which manufacturers use
intelligent and interconnected I/O (input output) tools (e.g., sensors,
actuators, drives, vision/video equipment) to enable different components in
the manufacturing field (e.g., machine tools, robots, conveyor belts) to
autonomously exchange information, trigger actions, and control each other
independently.
The transportation industry is also forecast to see IoT-related
spending of around $1.3 billion in 2017. The 'freight monitoring' use case is
expected to account for $849 million of this figure, which aptly highlights the
increasing importance of monitoring goods and improving productivity. The use
of IoT for freight management purposes (air, railroad, land, or sea) is based
on RFID, GPS, GPRS, and GIS technology to create intelligent,
internet-connected transportation systems. These systems perform intelligent
recognition, location, tracking, and monitoring of freight and cargo by
exchanging information and real-time communications via wireless, satellite,
and other channels.
IDC forecasts IoT-related spending by MEA utilities to reach
$918 million in 2017, with investments around 'smart grid' technologies to
account for more than 82% of this total. Smart grids are rapidly gaining
traction across the region as municipalities increasingly see the value
proposition in deploying related solutions in an effort to efficiently
distribute resources to their respective end customers.
"Numerous smart city projects are already underway across
the region, and the propagation of such initiatives will continue to fuel IoT
adoption by both public and private sector organizations," says Babalola.
"Saudi Arabia and the UAE are leading the charge when it comes to smart
cities, so it makes sense that these two countries will account for the highest
contributions to overall IoT investment in MEA during 2017, with a combined
value of more than $1.6 billion."
IDC's Worldwide Semiannual Internet of Things Spending Guide forecasts IoT revenues for 12
technologies and 47 use cases across 20 vertical industries in 8 regions and 52
countries.
Nonye Dom/GEE
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