Corona Impact on IoT Market: Scare with happy end?

The world’s economy has been hit hard by the ongoing corona pandemic. But what impact has COVID-19 on the IoT market? While some expect a boom in further digitization of many industries and therefore an increased demand in IoT and IIoT solutions, the short term effects are the same as everyhere: negative.

Since large parts of the manufacturing industry suffered a shut-down during the lockdown phase, demand in IoT solutions suffered as well. Also interruptions in supply-chains had an effect on the IoT demands, where asset tracking solutions are a main business. According to ABI Research, the pandemic is expected to cause an 18% drop in the net addition of IoT devices in 2020.

Corona impact on IoT market: Only short term negative effects

However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. While many businesses were halted, they are now preparing to increase their digitization efforts to be better prepared for future events. That again could increase the demand of IoT in the long run. In an interview with Siliconrepublic.com, Frank Stoecker, CEO of German Emnify states, that he sees Covid-19 as a catalyst, that is speeding up the trend of IoT adoption that otherwise would have happened over the course of five to seven years.

IoT could profit from digitization in the healthcare sector

In another recent report about the Covid-19 impact on the healthcare market, researchers from ResearchAndMarkets.com expect a raise in demand of IoT solutions for the healthcare sector. “The outbreak of COVID-19 has led IoT healthcare solution providers to quickly render solutions to meet the rising demand for high-quality services”, the report states.

One of those companies adressed could be the Italian Work In Progress Bio Medical Srl, which recently developed the “Microdefender”, an disinfection device for hospitals, hotels or the food industry. They suddenly found themselves in the midst of the pandemic and highly in demand.

And according to Forrester Research, healthcare technologies will be a greater priority among IoT service providers once the disruptions caused by the pandemic ends. In FutureIoT.tech, Achim Granzen, principal analyst at Forrester is quoted “The crisis has triggered a lot of ideas and solutions, however there was simply no time to look at a more strategic approach for both the technologies and the processes. This will be the focus of governments, health care providers, and others, once the acute crisis is behind us,”

IoT could make the world a safer world

So the outlook isn’t as bad for the IoT, as the current decrease in sales might look like. Overall, it will probalby just have a relatively short negative impact on the market.

“To be forewarned is to be forearmed”, sais Jamie Moss, ABI research director for M2M, IoT and IOE “The mass use of microcontroller unit-based, low-power wide-area sensors can help us make a safer world, where we can quickly respond to threats. The IoT is a market that grows naturally as and when it is right for it to do so, to deliver planned results. And the need for guaranteed outcomes has never been more acute than now.”