Although outdoor surveillance cameras are forecast to be the biggest market for 5G internet of things (IoT) solutions over the next three years, the automotive market is expected to become the largest driver by 2023, according to Gartner Inc. The surveillance camera market will account for 70% of the 5G IoT endpoint installed base in 2020 with 2.5 million endpoints, reaching 11.2 million units in 2022 before falling to 32% of the market by the end of 2023.
Gartner’s report “Market Trends: 5G Opportunities in IoT for Communications Service Providers, predicts that the 5G IoT endpoint installed base will more than triple between 2020 and 2021, from 3.5 million units in 2020 to 11.3 million units in 2021. By 2023, the 5G IoT endpoint installed base will near 49 million units (See Table 1), driven by connected cars and outdoor surveillance cameras.
In 2023, the automotive industry will become the largest market for 5G IoT solutions, accounting for 53% of the 5G IoT endpoint units. The biggest 5G use case is expected to be embedded modules for connected cars. Gartner estimates that embedded endpoints in connected cars for commercial and consumer markets will represent an installed base of 19.1 million units out of a total of 25.9 million 5G endpoints in the automotive sector in 2023.
“The addressable market for embedded 5G connections in connected cars is growing faster than the overall growth in the 5G IoT sector,” said Stephanie Baghdassarian, senior research director at Gartner, in a statement. “Commercial and consumer connected-car embedded 5G endpoints will represent 11% of all 5G endpoints installed in 2020, and this figure will reach 39% by the end of 2023.”
The report also finds that the share of 5G-connected cars actively connected to a 5G service will grow from 15% in 2020 to 74% in 2023. Market share is expected to reach 94% in 2028, when 5G technology will be used for cellular V2X (vehicle-to-everything) communications.
