Research company Transforma Insights predicted cellular IoT connections would increase from 1.9 billion at the end of 2023 to 7.5 billion over the next decade, but noted just 1.1 billion would use what it deemed full 5G.

The remainder of the 5G connections, including those using massive machine-type communications (mMTC) technology, will reach 5.5 billion. Other mMTC technologies, such as NB-IoT and LTE-M, are set to account for the additional connections.

The research company noted a total of 16.1 billion IoT devices were active at the end of last year, forecasting that figure will grow to almost 40 billion by end-2033.

Annual device sales are expected to increase at a CAGR of 8 per cent from 4.1 billion to 8.7 billion over the same timeframe. Total revenue for the market including modules, associated applications and connectivity is projected to nearly triple from $335 billion to $934 billion.

By 2033, the consumer sector is forecast to represent 61 per cent of all IoT connections. For the enterprise sector, 35 per cent of devices will come from “cross-vertical” use cases, such as track-and-trace, office equipment and fleet vehicles.

An additional 24 per cent of enterprise connections will be deployed by utilities sector, most prominently smart meters. Retail and wholesale will comprise 22 per cent, mainly due to payment processing devices and electronic shelf labels.

By region, China, North America, and Europe will dominate, accounting for 32 per cent, 21 per cent and 19 per cent respectively, of the total value of the IoT market by the end of the forecast period.