The IoT in 2030 | Part 1: The impact on our lives

Last updated: 18 September 2018

Following the insights drawn from our Connected Living I and II global consumer surveys about the mobile consumer experience in 2025 and our guide about “turning things on”, we now present you Connected Living III, which explores end-users’ expectations with regards to the IoT in 2030.

This is our latest study of 2,500 adult consumers from Brazil, China, France, Germany, Japan, the US and the UK. We asked them to think about future technology in the year 2030 and its use cases, as well as subjects like privacy and security.

The key goal from this survey was to provide insights to those involved in the ever evolving IoT ecosystem on what needs to be addressed. Understanding consumer expectations can offer the opportunity to unlock the full potential of IoT devices and related smart services that can be developed for and offered to customers.

What we found encouraging is the optimism the public hold for the IoT. 85% think it will grow significantly by 2030, and of those who hold this view, 78% think their lives will improve as a direct result of advances in IoT tech.

These findings should give everyone involved in the industry confidence that consumers are ready and open to what the IoT has to offer.

When we delved deeper into which areas of their lives they thought would improve, the top five responses were that the IoT:

  1. Will improve the way I authenticate myself to services (56 %)
  2. Will improve communication (48%)
  3. Will make it more likely that I have constant connectivity (43 %)
  4. Will improve my family and home life (42 %)
  5. Will free up time at work (35 %)

IoT improves daily lives

For over half of consumers, improving the way they will authenticate themselves to services is an anticipated benefit, highlighting a desire for a more personalized, seamless and secure IoT experience by 2030.

Also, on average, consumers anticipate four ways it could improve their lives – from the authentication and communication benefits already seen, to helping them make decisions, improving their health and beyond, suggesting that the IoT is expected to take a great part in their lives.

This is further demonstrated when consumers were asked to finish the statement “the ideal IoT device/service for me would be…”, the most common words they used were “life”, “safe”, “security” and/or “secure”, suggesting that by 2030 the IoT will certainly be a part of their lives. The sketch below represents those findings.

Most common words associated with the IoT

This suggests that the IoT experience must therefore be trusted.

However, because of the expected IoT omnipresence in their lives, security fears have also been expressed by some consumers who feel that IoT growth can make their lives worse, if security issues happen. The main fears include  increased concern over privacy (62%) and/or having less control over their life (50%).

IoT security fears

In addition to this (42%) fear their life becoming more complex/confusing, suggesting again that the IoT needs to provide a fluid experience, which isn’t the case today with IoT still stuck working in silos in many different scenarios.

So, organizations within the IoT ecosystem need to take action in order to address those concerns and make room for more widespread consumer adoption.

Download the complete Gemalto 2030 Internet of Things

 Consumer Research Report here. Includes country analysis.

In the second part in our series on the IoT in 2030 we’re going to look into the future customer experience. And in the concluding part, we’ll explore the concept of silent authentication and security. The IoT is already here, but it’s about to get a lot more exciting.

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