Comm. Smart Cities and IoT supplement Smart Cities and IoT | Seite 17

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Regionally, North America and Western Europe are going to have
the fastest growth in mobile devices and connections with 22 per cent
and 14 per cent CAGR from 2014 to 2019, respectively.
Cisco also points out that although there is an overall growth
in the number of mobile devices and connections, there is also a
visible shift in the device mix. This year we see a slight slowdown in
the growth of tablets as a new device category, phablets (a class
of a mobile device designed to combine or straddle the form of a
smartphone and a tablet), were introduced. Tablet growth was also
affected by the availability of lightweight laptops, which are quite
similar to tablets in form factor but have more enhanced capabilities.
Throughout the forecast period, it is expected that the device
mix will become smarter with an increasing number of devices with
higher computing resources, and network connection capabilities
that create a growing demand for more capable and intelligent networks. Cisco defines smart devices and connections as those having
advanced computing and multimedia capabilities with a minimum
of 3G connectivity.
As mentioned above, 497 million mobile devices and connections
were added in 2014, and smartphones accounted for 88 per cent of
that growth at 439 million net adds. The share of smart devices and

ricsson first outlined its vision for 50 billion connected devices in
2009, and went on to repeat the forecast many times thereafter
as part of its Networked Society outlook. Given the company’s
stature as the largest telecom infrastructure provider in the world, the
prediction quickly developed into an industry benchmark, despite
Ericsson having estimated the number of connections prior to the roll
out of 4G, and ahead of smartphones becoming ubiquitous.
Ericsson’s current commentary is that the industry is “well on the
way to reaching the vision of 50 billion connected devices”. However,
no specific timeframe for that goal was highlighted in the report, and
the company now says the milestone will be reached at some point
after 2020.
The updated projections in Ericsson’s report still make for
compelling reading, with the estimated market of connected devices
estimated to already stand at around 13.5 billion, including (in order
of size) mobile phones, PCs/laptops/tablets/routers, connected
consumer electronics, M2M, and fixed phones.
Cisco has also been vocal in its forecasts of the explosion in the
number of connected devices and the development of the Internet of
Things (IoT), suggesting there will be 50 billion “connected things” in
the next five years.
In the Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data
Traffic Forecast Update published earlier this year, the company
described the number one mobile networking trend as the increasing
number of wireless devices that are accessing mobile networks
worldwide. Each year several new devices in different form factors
and increased capabilities and intelligence are introduced in the market. Nearly half a billion (497 million) mobile devices and connections
were added in 2014.
In 2014, global mobile devices and connections grew to 7.4 billion,
up from 6.9 billion in 2013, according to Cisco. Globally, mobile
devices and connections are forecast to grow to 11.5 billion by 2019 at
a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nine per cent.
By 2019, there will be 8.2 billion handheld or personal mobile-ready
devices and 3.2 billion M2M connections (e.g., GPS systems in cars,
asset tracking systems in shipping and manufacturing sectors, or
medical applications making patient records and health status more
readily available).

Aji Ed, chief technology
officer for Nokia Networks in
the Middle East and Africa

By 2019, there will be 8.2 billion handheld or personal mobileready devices and 3.2 billion M2M connections (e.g., GPS systems in
cars, asset tracking systems in shipping and manufacturing sectors,
or medical applications ma