FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Prague — A new update to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Semiannual Internet of Things Spending Guide forecasts spending on the Internet of Things (IoT) in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) to grow 20.6% year on year in 2017, reaching just over $12 billion. By 2021, CEE IoT spending is expected to total nearly $27 billion as organizations continue to invest in the hardware, software, services, and connectivity that enable the IoT.

"We are seeing companies in Central and Eastern Europe increasingly embracing the Internet of Things, with many planning to accelerate investments in the short term,” says Milan Kalal, program manager of Internet of Things research with IDC CEMA. “Our recent IoT survey confirms that the CEE region has become a very exciting market for this transformative technology, one that is full of both opportunities and challenges. With our IoT Spending Guide, IDC provides insight into key use cases where investment is being made to achieve the business value and transformation promised by the Internet of Things.”

The IoT use cases that are expected to attract the largest investments in 2017 include freight monitoring ($1.8 billion), smart grid technologies for electricity, gas, and water ($1.2 billion), and manufacturing operations ($1.0 billion). Production asset management and smart home technologies are also forecast to see significant investments this year. While these use cases will remain the largest areas of IoT spending in 2021, smart building technologies are predicted to experience strong growth (34.4% CAGR) over the five-year forecast. The use cases that will see the fastest spending growth are smart grid technologies for water (42.9% CAGR), insurance telematics (36.8% CAGR), and electric vehicle charging (35.7% CAGR), albeit all will start from a relatively small initial base.

The industries making the largest IoT investments in 2017 will be transportation ($2.6 billion), manufacturing ($2.2 billion), and utilities ($1.3 billion). Cross-industry IoT investments, which represent use cases common to all industries (such as connected vehicles and smart buildings), will exceed $900 million in 2017 and rank among the top segments throughout the five-year forecast. Consumer IoT purchases will be the fourth-largest market segment in 2017 at $1.1 billion, but will slow down to become the fifth-largest segment in 2021. Meanwhile, the industries that will see the fastest spending growth are insurance (38.9% CAGR), cross-industry (31.4%), and construction (28.1%).

From a technology perspective, services and hardware will be the two largest revenue-generating categories. Hardware spending will be dominated by modules and sensors that connect end points to networks, while services spending will be split between “IT and installation services” and “ongoing and content services”. Software spending will be dominated by applications software. The fastest-growing areas of technology spending are also in the software category, where “horizontal software” and “analytics software” will have five-year CAGRs of 38.2% and 28.1%, respectively. Security hardware and software will also see increased investment, with respective CAGRs of 19.3% and 22.7%.

Russia will be the IoT investment leader in CEE throughout the forecast, with spending expected to reach $9.4 billion in 2021. The second- and third-largest spenders will be Poland ($5.8 billion in 2021) and the Czech Republic ($2.3 billion). Transportation and manufacturing will be the two leading industries for IoT investments in all three countries, followed by utilities in Russia, and cross-industry in Poland and the Czech Republic. Consumer IoT spending will be among the leading categories in all three countries, as well.

The Worldwide Semiannual Internet of Things Spending Guide forecasts IoT spending for 12 technologies and 54 use cases across 20 vertical industries in eight regions and 52 countries. Unlike any other research in the industry, the comprehensive spending guide was designed to help vendors clearly understand the industry-specific opportunity for IoT technologies today.