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May 15, 2017

The Internet of Things may be growing rapidly but not as fast as some predictions would have us believe. In 2010, Ericsson’s former CEO, Hans Vestburg, stated that the world will have 50 billion Internet-connected devices by 2020. He has since changed his figure to about 28 billion by 2021.

One of the reasons that the numbers keep changing is because IoT is constantly evolving. There are new types of devices incorporating the IoT all the time and there are gadgets that have yet to be invented. It is hard to predict all of the ways that IoT can and will be used in daily life in the future. As IoT devices become the standard, people will have the IoT devices but many may not become connected to the internet or even be used.

These numbers may only be projections but they help to fuel production decisions for the companies behind IoT devices.  Projections also help investors know if they should continue to put their money into these technologies. Even though the predicted numbers have fallen, 28 billion still a significant amount of devices, so it’s clear that the IoT is here to stay.

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Read more about The Internet of Fewer Things

The Internet of Fewer Things

Early predictions of 50 billion connected devices by 2020 are being scaled back

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