Smart cities are a hot topic in 2017, with technology set to transform the face of cities.
Pablo Tomasi, analyst: smart cities IoT intelligence service at IHS Markit, says mobility and transport is the sector to watch in 2017, as this vertical provides clear practical advantages but also long-term, game-changing possibilities for cities and companies.
Healthcare solutions within smart cities will have to use a hybrid approach targeting both the private and public sector to generate momentum while increasing consumer trust, he adds.
Partnerships will define the market, according to Tomasi: the Smart City Ecosystem is a wide, boundless world that requires multiple and diverse expertise that can only be obtained through partnerships.
Tomasi offers the following analysis on smart city trends in 2017:
While clear-use cases will dominate new project launches in 2017, the market is transforming
* In 2017, sectors providing clear-use cases will still be the most common to launch projects in the market. However, this will start to change as the market is expected to mature towards a new stage of development.
* Verticals – including both proven successful case studies and also more innovative initiatives – will push the market into the next stage of its evolution. The category of Mobility and Transport will set the pace. The vertical provides clear-use cases in the form of traffic management and optimisation through the use of sensors, cameras, and platforms, while also possessing a game-changing spark in the form of vehicle to vehicle communication (V2V), vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) communication, and self-driving vehicles.
* IHS Markit expects companies and cities to launch an increasing number of pilot projects in the V2V, V2I, and the self-driving sphere. IHS Markit also expects these projects to increase their extent and scope.
Healthcare projects need to gain consumers and cities’ trust before large-scale projects rollouts
* Healthcare initiatives within the smart city framework, such as telehealth and remote patient monitoring, have great potential. They have yet to express their full potential, however. To expand in the market, healthcare initiatives will need to use hybrid private and public approaches.
* Projects should mainly target private consumers at first as cities will still be hesitant to embark in large-scale healthcare-related smart city initiatives. This hesitancy will be due to multiple challenges such as sensitive data and issues with successful revenue models. Consequently, IHS Markit expects cities to launch only limited pilot projects in the healthcare category.
M&A activity will provide gains into specific expertise while partnerships will create end to end solutions
* No company can face the smart city market alone. In 2017, IHS Markit expects companies active in the Smart City IoT market to use targeted acquisitions of small companies and providers to quickly gain specialised expertise. However, besides M&A activity, partnerships will still be the essential building block of the sector. Diverse partnerships will shape the market in the coming year.
* The smart city market will continue to push its boundaries, integrating more and more segments, sectors and providers. IHS Markit expects an increasing number of projects to be launched, cutting across multiple verticals and leveraging the collaboration of partners with different core expertise. The market will also continue blurring the line between itself and other forms of IoT – industrial and consumer – in its attempt to find the winning formula needed to unlock its full potential.