Hong Kong is set to get an IoT update through a Cisco partnership. Source: Dassault Systèmes

Asian companies are the world’s biggest adopters of IoT solutions – survey

A NEW global survey found that Asian businesses are leading the world in the adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions as the number of companies embracing the technology has tripled over the last five years.

The “IoT Barometer 2017/18” by Vodaphone which is touted as the leading global survey of business sentiment on IoT innovation and investment, found that the adoption has soared 200 percent from 2013 to stand at 36 percent in 2017.

One of the survey’s key findings shows Asia is leading the way in connected device adoption and how IoT has hit critical mass and is now being deployed at scale.

“This is a defining moment for IoT. Asia’s businesses now see IoT as a core component of their current and future business, and their confidence in it delivering a competitive advantage is soaring,” said Justin Nelson, Vodafone’s Director of IoT for APAC.

The company explained the barometer examined four key factors for modern businesses: State of the Market; Business Benefits; Moving Forward; and Future Optimism.

Among others, the report found:

• 77 percent of Asia’s businesses see IoT as mission-critical to their business
• 88 percent of Asian respondents have increased the use of IoT solutions in the past 12 months
• Over half (53 percent) of Asia’s enterprises say IoT has increased their market competitiveness
• 42 percent of Asia businesses have more than 1,000 connected devices and 53 pc are seeing significant returns on investment

The survey involved 1,278 respondents in 13 countries: United States, Brazil, Ireland, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, South Africa, China, India, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

When it came to optimism and the future, the company said Asia businesses message to the world was even clearer as 91 percent believe IoT will have an enormous or sizeable impact on the wider economy in the next five years.

Seventy-nine percent of the respondents believe IoT usage will rise as security and privacy concerns greatly reduce, and 91 percent believe cross-industry collaboration will generate joint IoT solutions, while 89 percent believe AI and machine learning will be commonplace by 2022.

The report noted that on top of the overwhelming adoption numbers, the most significant factor was that IoT was increasingly being deployed at scale, and the increased ROI as a result, the company said.

Vodaphone’s findings echo another similar survey of chief information officers (CIOs) by Gartner, Inc, which found that companies in the Asia-Pacific region are ahead in the adoption of disruptive technologies like IoT and artificial intelligence.

Gartner’s survey, which covers CIOs worldwide, including 537 across 17 countries in the Asia-Pacific and represents approximately US$3.4 trillion in revenue and public sector budgets and US$49 billion in IT spending, according to Business Today.