South Korea has emerged as the nation that is the most capable and ready to generate efficiencies linked to IoT solutions in the Asia Pacific region, according to a new study.

APeJ Nations and IoT: A comparative Assessment from market intelligence provider IDC also ranked Singapore and New Zealand at the top of its index for the most IoT prepared countries, excluding Japan.

“Countries at the top of the index are more likely to have adaptability for efficiencies that IoT solutions can create, be more conducive for business and product innovation, and more likely to have access to the technologies that align with IoT use cases,” said Hugh Ujhazy, associate vice president for IoT research, IDC Asia Pacific.

“Knowing where a country stands in the loT index will help global and local IT vendors identify the opportunities that lie ahead of them as they line up their strategies at federal, local, and enterprise levels.”

IDC predicts that the APeJ loT market will grow from $335.6bn in 2016 to $565.5bn in 2020 as the global IoT landscape continues to mature. With such growth and business opportunities at hand, loT vendors and service providers are faced with an increasingly complex set of choices as to which markets to enter to gain the most value and globalise their offerings.

The report provides a comparative assessment of APeJ countries’ readiness for sustained IoT adoption, as well as their ability to facilitate its accelerated development. The report reveals that the countries at the top of the index ranked well in all measures of stature, business readiness and technological preparedness.

Other countries included in the benchmarking exercise are China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, India, and ASEAN countries namely Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam.

Some highlights from the assessment include:

• South Korea scores extremely highly on all measures, including IoT spend as a percentage of GDP. This indicates that South Korea is performing well on current IoT-specific spending levels and has a strong business environment that fosters innovation and promotes attractive investment opportunities for IoT vendor and end users.

• Singapore’s cloud infrastructure, broadband penetration plus ease of doing business and start-up/ business friendly government environments make it an excellent incubator for IoT solutions in the region.

• New Zealand scores exceptionally high on measures such as ease of doing business and start-up procedures, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, and innovation, all of which point to necessary components for a business environment that is ready for the growth of the IoT. This is considering it has a relatively small GDP and population compared with G20 countries.

At the country level, the IoT readiness index also hopes to provide the public sector and policy makers the opportunity to look at specific concerns or opportunities for their country, regardless of its high or low ranking. For example, a country with a high level of patents but a low number of tertiary graduates may be able to create innovation but lacks a skilled workforce to roll-out real-life solutions.

“We already know countries are not created equal. What is surprising is that sheer GDP size alone is not necessarily the best predictor of a country’s readiness for and ability to accelerate the development of the IoT,” added Shaily Shah, research manager for IoT research, IDC Asia Pacific.

If you like this, you might be interested in reading the following:

Which nation is best prepared for the IoT?

The global IoT index aims to help global and local IoT vendors identify what opportunities lie ahead for them

smartcitiesworld.net/connectivity/connectivity/which-nation-is-best-prepared-for-the-iotst-prepared-for-the-iot">smartcitiesworld.net/connectivity/connectivity/which-nation-is-best-prepared-for-the-iot

IDC believes the IoT needs AI capabilities to deliver true value

This is just one of the views put forward in the company’s IT industry predictions report for 2017 and beyond

smartcitiesworld.net/news/idc-believes-the-iot-needs-ai-capabilities-to-deliver-true-value-1076

IT infrastructure cloud products spend set to grow
Spending on IT infrastructure products for cloud environments will grow 15.5 per cent in 2016 to $37.1 billion, says IDC

smartcitiesworld.net/news/news/it-infrastructure-cloud-products-spend-set-to-grow-704