Exciting times for IoT?

The market analyst says worldwide production will jump 6% from 5.82bn in 2013 to 6.18bn this year, marking the largest increase in four years. Although production growth rates are likely to slow in the next few years, a whopping 20bn new devices are expected to enter the market between 2015 and 2017. Jagdish Rebello, senior director for information technology at IHS, said: "The improved growth this year of the connected devices industry marks the return of higher production as manufacturers deliver all sorts of connectivity equipment to users. "Given the voracious appetite of consumers for social media and their yen for always-on connectivity, it's little surprise that makers will continue to turn out such devices to keep buyers engaged." The devices expected to enjoy higher production numbers this year include video game consoles, media tablets, mobile handsets, LCD TVs, set top boxes and mobile PCs. In contrast, IHS says production rates for digital still cameras, camcorders, desktop PCs, DVD players/records and portable media players will suffer in 2014.