The Top IoT Trends in 2022
This post covers the top IoT trends to watch in 2022. It includes 5G expansion, advances in healthcare, concerns over cybersecurity, and improved wearables.
The Internet of Things (IoT) has ushered in an era of astonishing growth in countless industries. With the proliferation of increasingly sophisticated smart devices, beacons, meters, and appliances, businesses have been able to streamline their supply chains, economize operations, and improve both employee communications and customer outreach.
Meanwhile, manufacturers have leveraged IoT to build groundbreaking new products and solutions. Things like smart thermostats, connected cars, and smart wearables have enabled individuals to reduce their carbon footprints, track their daily health habits, and make their lives substantially more convenient in a variety of ways.
In this blog post, we cover the top IoT trends for 2022 and beyond. While these trends pre-exist COVID-19, many have only accelerated over the past year and figure to play a much larger role in the future. Here’s what we’ll cover:
Top IoT Trends to Watch in 2022
The Expansion of 5G
5G promises big things for IoT. Not only will it deliver minimal latency, but hyperconnectivity as well. This will translate to faster data transfers, increased coverage, and improved energy efficiency. As such, 5G is set to enable an entirely new generation of IoT devices, sensors, and use cases. Things that were once considered uneconomical or logistically too complex with 3G and 4G networks will now be within the realm of possibility thanks to 5G.
It should also be pointed out that 5G is currently most predominant among consumer IoT products. But Gartner predicts this won’t be true for much longer. Indeed, the United States, along with several other countries, is beginning to develop 5G on mmWave frequencies. This will strengthen 5G connectivity for massive machine-type communications where data production, exchange, and implementation are handled by large IoT fleets, with minimal human involvement.
Advances in Healthcare
Healthcare systems can never be too efficient. The ability to distribute finite resources within facilities and across systems is quite literally a matter of life and death. So is the ability to share timely clinical care guidelines with health professionals and patients. By fortifying the industry’s capacity to provide top-notch services, IoT has become a powerful ally in the healthcare sector. What’s more, it’s also becoming an essential delivery mechanism for healthcare more broadly.
As Bernard Marr noted for Forbes last year, IoT-powered solutions, like telemedicine and automated home help for the elderly and disabled, are changing the way healthcare is administered. Such technologies, Marr points out, minimize unnecessary contact in situations where the risk of viral contamination is particularly high. Consequently, while pre-COVID estimates for virtual doctors’ visits were pegged to be at 36 million in the United States in 2020, the actual number ended up being closer to one billion.
In addition, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) specializing in hospital equipment have begun investing in the development of IoT-enabled products and services. For instance, by installing Bluetooth tags in things like hospital beds, wheelchairs, and defibrillators, manufacturers open the door to the development of value-added applications that enable hospital managers to keep track of critical resources.
Cybersecurity Concerns
Ericsson estimates that there will be roughly 29 billion connected devices globally in 2022. While the vast majority of these will be offering exciting new consumer services, facilitating efficiencies for businesses across industries, and contributing to overall improvements in quality-of-life for billions of people globally, they nevertheless come with new threats and security concerns.
In complex networks composed of multiple connected devices, just one compromised piece of equipment could spell disaster. Likewise, connected devices are easily lost or stolen, meaning additional layers of security will be required to prevent potentially devastating hacks.
More Sophisticated Wearables
As noted, IoT has a lot to gain from 5G. This is especially true in the case of wearables. Indeed, with faster data transfers, increased coverage, and improved energy efficiency, products like smart watches, fitness monitors, and heart monitors will become substantially more sophisticated. This will lead to improvements in areas like healthcare, where wearables enable doctors to monitor at-risk patients in real-time; and industries like transportation, manufacturing, and oil and gas, where they can be used for a variety of logistics-related tasks.
About Pareteum
Pareteum is an experienced provider of Communications Platform-as-a-Service solutions. We empower enterprises, communications service providers, internet service providers, mobile operators, full MVNOs, light MVNOs, early-stage innovators, developers, IoT (Internet of Things), and telecommunications infrastructure providers with the freedom and control to create, deliver, and scale innovative communications experiences.
The Pareteum platform connects people and devices around the world using the secure, ubiquitous, and highly scalable solution to deliver data, voice, video, SMS / text messaging, media, and content enablement.
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