94 percent of businesses will use IoT by the end of 2021 according to a Microsoft report

What you need to know

  • Microsoft released a new IoT Signals report which breaks down IoT stats and trends.
  • The report claims that 94 percent of businesses will use IoT by the end of 2021.
  • The report states that 47 percent of surveyed companies that have adopted IoT believe there aren't enough skilled workers in IoT.

Microsoft released an IoT Signals report that shows trends and statistics surrounding the Internet of Things (IoT). The report shows that IoT is extremely common in the core industries of manufacturing retail/wholesale, transportation, government, and healthcare. The report claims that 94 percent of businesses will use IoT by the end of 2020.

IoT growth shows no signs of slowing: adoption is projected to increase by 9 points over the next two years, meaning 94% of businesses will be using IoT by the end of 2021."

Microsoft commissioned Hypothesis Group to perform the research. The data comes a "20-minute online survey [that] was conducted with over 3,000 decision makers at enterprise companies across the US, UK, Germany, France, China, and Japan who were currently involved in IoT."

The report lays out adoption across major industries, with retail/wholesale (90 percent) and manufacturing (87 percent) leading the way. It also states that growth doesn't show any signs of slowing down and that by the end of 2021, 94 percent of businesses will use IoT.

The report also shows that nearly all companies are concerned with the security of IoT. 97 percent of companies surveyed are "concerned about security when implementing IoT." It's noteworthy that despite this concern, the report states that security concerns do not hinder adoption.

Despite high adoption rates, the report states that 47 percent of companies that have adopted IoT believe that there are not enough available skilled workers in IoT.

The full report sheds quite a bit of light on the Internet of Things, including both the challenges it faces and the primary areas which it is successful.

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Sean Endicott
News Writer and apps editor

Sean Endicott brings nearly a decade of experience covering Microsoft and Windows news to Windows Central. He joined our team in 2017 as an app reviewer and now heads up our day-to-day news coverage. If you have a news tip or an app to review, hit him up at sean.endicott@futurenet.com.