Chart of the Day: IoT connections to surge further in the next 5 years

29 billion devices will be connected by the year 2022.

According to Ericsson Mobility Report, it is forecasted that there will be around 29b connected devices by 2022, of which 18b will be related to IoT.

"More specifically for IoT devices with cellular connections, they are expected to increase from 400m in 2016 to 1.5b in 2022. The report also forecasts for the number of mobile phones to be surpassed by the number of IoT devices in 2018," the report said, as quoted by OCBC Investment Research.

IoT is a concept of connecting devices to the Internet or between devices with connectivity capabilities. And by devices, this concept of IoT applies to just about any device. The most prominent example is the emergence of wearable devices such as smart watches and health trackers, which are connected to other smart devices.

Examples of other devices include home appliances such as washing machines, air-conditioner, lights, as well as commercial devices such as utility meters, pressure gauge in cities, and rental car fleet management systems.

"This growth in devices along with increasing connectivity between devices is also driven by the adoption of applications (e.g. Pokemon Go that uses augmented reality technology etc.) and emergence of innovative business model (e.g. Uber)," OCBC said.