5G to dominate IoT cellular device sales: Strategy Analytics

Cellular IoT device shipments approach 350 million annually by 2025 and 5G will dominate IoT cellular device sales by 2025, Strategy Analytics forecasts.
Shipments of 4G IoT modules will peak within three years, as 5G modules begin slowly in 2019, with 2023 a key inflection point, as 5G modules outstrip those of 4G modules. The Automotive vertical market will be the largest consumer of IoT cellular modules across the forecast period.

“The low latency benefits of 5G will allow IoT use cases where near-instantaneous communications are required, such as platooning of trucks, autonomous driving, low latency and QoS in manufacturing and areas like remote surgery in healthcare,” Andrew Brown, executive director of Enterprise and IoT Research at Strategy Analytics, said.

5G for IoT becomes interesting when the industry moves to standalone (SA) 5G network deployments from the NSA (non-standalone) networks. 5G built onto LTE networks will have the ability to offer network slices based on customer requirements.

“In addition to state investment in manufacturing, including smart appliances and high-end consumer electronics, the Chinese government is also promoting the development of the IoT in areas such as industrial control, energy, financial services, and healthcare,” Guang Yang, director in the Service Provider Group at Strategy Analytics, said.