The Internet of Things in Italy: state-of-the-art and market trends

In 2014, we witnessed a change of pace with the Internet of Things transforming itself from an object of interest in a few niche markets into an element central to business, expected to grow spectacularly over the next few years. Focusing our attention on what is happening in Italy, a few bare numbers will illustrate the extent of this subject matter. In the most consolidated fields of application, in 2014 there were over 8 million objects connected through mobile phone networks (33% up on 2013) carrying a market valued at 1.15 billion Euros (28% up on 2013). If we add the 400 million Euros of the market linked to objects connected through networks other than mobile telephony (Wireless M-Bus and WiFi, for example), the total climbs to 1.55 billion Euros. In addition to these figures, in 2014, we registered significant movement within three fields of application that will underpin the growth of IoT in Italy (and beyond). The first field is that of smart cars. Innovation is not restricted to GPS/GPRS systems in...