Tech Wiz expanding the connected device conversation

Connected devices, a topic I have covered many times. But I got an email from a long time reader saying, can you share more of what devices are connected? Let’s see, there are more than 15 billion connected devices in the world right now (more than 2 per person for everyone in the world). Connected devices today include your cell phone. Every phone that exists and connects to a cellular network is a connected device. Add to that an iWatch, Samsung Gear or the new Fitbit watch, and they as well are connected.  Experts normally talk about wearables versus devices you carry. They also talk about connected devices that can move on their own (drones/ROV’s) and connected devices that are stationary (sensors often).

The biggest area where I see growth is two-fold. The first is the connected medical device. Form Blood pressure and blood sugar devices, your doctor will want to know what is going on, much more often than that once a year office visit. You also can see trends yourself, with the software managing and helping you better understand your health. The second part of the medical device issue is the reality of home networks today. There is a “priority” process that will have to occur. In the enterprise space, we would consider software-defined networking to solve the issue of priority network traffic. In the home space and home network that is a little harder to implement and manage but I suspect it is coming.

The expanding world of what is connected remains interesting. As I said roughly two devices deployed per human being on the planet, today. Tomorrow, and by tomorrow we are talking 2020, analysts believe there will be  6 to 10 devices deployed per d person. My gut is the initial number (14 or so billion now) is wrong. I think the actual reality is that there will be between 12 and 14 devices per person by 2020. By 2025 I think there will be between 20 and 40 devices deployed per living human being on the planet. The rate of IoT expansion is a lot faster than people realize. The dancing Santa we all bought 20 years ago, will be replaced by a connected dancing Santa that changes lights based on the weather!

The connection is everything!