An amazing report just released by Cisco has projected that there will be an amazing fifty billion pieces of technology connected to the internet by 2020. This number is even more staggering when you consider that estimates place the current number of internet connected devices at a little over ten billion.
A rise over 400% over the next seven years seems a bold prediction, but Cisco predict that as more people take advantage of the connectivity promised by IPv6 will see more everyday advices connected.
The figure becomes even more amazing when you consider that the global population is expected to be 7.7billion in 2020, so even if we assumed that the digital divide has been closed it will mean that every man, woman and child on the planet will have over five connected devices each.
To see if this was a realistic prediction the team at UKITA thought we would look at some other amazing technology.
Internet Cars by 2014.
An article in wired.com in January this year suggested that most cars will have internet connectivity as standard within the next three years.
The article revealed that most buyers in the “mature” automobile markets would consider “smart-car” capability a key factor in deciding to buy cars by 2016. If you are in the market for a luxury or high-end vehicle you will be expecting your car to have connectivity by 2014. That is only next year.
People are interested in apps that go beyond satnavs- they would like their car to alert them if a part is becoming worn, or a service is due, and over a third would like their car to be able to warn them if there was a bad driver nearby.
Internet Fridges
Samsung introduced the first internet fridge (that we know of) in 2010. Since then a number of firms have jumped on the internet fridge bandwagon without the idea really have caught the public imagination, maybe in part due to the high prices. Yet the DVD player (already dying out) was released it was considered an expensive luxury before the price lowered and it became a part of everyday life.
The internet fridge will record what you have removed and create grocery orders for you. It can also be programmed to help you control what you eat. These are features that we feel sure will see the internet fridge reach the mainstream.
E-books
We know E-books have been around a while now, but the competition for prices now means you can get an e-book with similar functionality to an iPad for a fraction of the cost. Amazons Kindle FireHD costs £149, about half the price of the Apple equivalent, and has specs that mean it will compete with any tablet on the market.
The price war means the lower end of the market is now getting to the point where people will be considering them as gifts for children. Soon it will be the norm for each household in the UK to have multiple devices with e-book capability.
Looking at these technological advances and it is easy to see where the prediction of fifty billion internet connected devices has come from. It looks like now is a good time for all of us to be reviewing our mobile capabilities.