2024: The Year of IoT Expansion and Mainstream Adoption

Introduction

The Internet of Things (IoT) has been steadily growing over the past decade, but 2024 is poised to be a breakthrough year for IoT expansion and mainstream adoption. As costs continue to decrease and new applications emerge, IoT will move beyond niche enterprise solutions into widespread consumer and industrial use cases. By 2024, over 30 billion IoT devices will be connected worldwide, enabling exciting new possibilities across every industry vertical.

In this article, I will analyze the key drivers spurring IoT growth in 2024 and outline why this will be a watershed moment for the technology. From smart homes and cities to industrial IoT and autonomous vehicles, 2024 represents a tipping point where IoT shifts from early adoption to mass market ubiquity. Let’s explore how and why IoT will achieve mainstream status in 2024.

Lower Costs Increase Adoption

One of the biggest hurdles inhibiting IoT growth is the cost of components such as sensors, processors, and networking hardware. But with each passing year these costs continue to fall, making sophisticated IoT solutions more affordable for consumers and businesses alike.

For example, the average cost per megabyte of flash storage has declined from $0.62 in 2010 to just $0.33 in 2020. Similarly, the cost per 1,000 IoT connection points fell from $600 in 2010 to $380 in 2020. These cost savings compound each year, allowing for more advanced and affordable products.

As a result, by 2024 consumer IoT devices like smart home tech and wearables will become commonplace. On the enterprise side, industrial IoT and smart city infrastructure will expand dramatically thanks to these cost savings. The falling price of IoT hardware is a primary catalyst for mainstream adoption beginning in 2024.

Maturing Connectivity Infrastructure

In addition to hardware, maturing wireless connectivity infrastructure is another key enabler for widespread IoT adoption. Next-generation 5G networks will roll out en masse by 2024, providing lightning fast speeds and low latency needed for many IoT use cases.

5G’s throughput is 10-100X greater than 4G, while latency drops from 50 milliseconds down to just 1 millisecond. This huge performance leap will support advanced new IoT applications from industrial robots and self-driving cars to high-definition streaming between IoT devices.

Complementing 5G is the continued expansion of low-power wide area networks (LPWANs) optimized for IoT. Networks like Sigfox, LoRaWAN, and NB-IoT provide long range connectivity specifically tailored for IoT devices. By 2024 over 3 billion devices will connect via LPWANs.

The combined footprint of 5G, LPWANs, Wi-Fi 6, and legacy cellular networks will provide comprehensive connectivity for the flood of devices coming online in the 2024 timeframe, fueling broad IoT adoption.

Emergence of New Use Cases

While current IoT applications like smart homes and connected vehicles will explode in popularity by 2024, entirely new use cases will also emerge to extend IoT into new areas. Two promising examples are:

• Industrial IoT – Also referred to as IIoT, this category encompasses machines, sensors, and software applied in industrial settings like manufacturing, logistics, and agriculture. IIoT allows for predictive maintenance, increased automation, and improved operational efficiency.

• Smart cities – IoT sensors and connectivity platforms enable data-driven city infrastructure. Application areas include traffic flow optimization, water leakage detection, automated waste collection, environmental monitoring and more.

These new domains will greatly expand the reach of IoT beginning in 2024. No longer confined to individual consumer devices, IIoT and smart cities showcase how IoT can transform broader environments and systems.

Key Takeaways on IoT in 2024

• Falling hardware costs make IoT solutions affordable for consumers and enterprises
• 5G and LPWANs provide the connectivity fabric for billions of devices
• Smart home devices and wearables will achieve mainstream adoption
• Industrial IoT and smart cities emerge as major new application areas

With these market drivers in place, 2024 will mark a monumental shift for IoT from early adoption to mass market ubiquity. It will join the ranks of transformational technologies like the smartphone and cloud computing that provide the digital infrastructure for modern life. The next few years promise to be the most exciting yet on the path toward an intensely connected world.