The Next Wave of IoT Isn’t Growth. It’s Value through Operational Maturity

The latest IoT Market Sizing forecast from Transforma Insights paints a familiar picture. Billions more devices are coming, consumer and enterprise adoption is growing steadily, and services continue to take a large slice of the revenue pie. But when I step back from the numbers and reflect on what I’m hearing in the field, I see a different story taking shape.

It’s not just about how many new devices are coming online. It’s about what we’re doing with the ones already out there, and whether the systems we’ve built can keep up with where things are going.

The Installed Base Is Where the Work Is

One of the quieter points in the report struck me the most. The average age of connected devices is rising. That may seem like a footnote, but it has real consequences.

We are moving into an era where the majority of connected devices are not brand new. They’re already deployed, already integrated into workflows, and still expected to deliver value. Which means the need to update, monitor, secure, and troubleshoot them becomes more important every year.

Companies that succeed in the next decade will be the ones who shift their focus from simply deploying more devices to operating the ones they already have more effectively. That starts with infrastructure. If you do not have reliable systems in place for automating updates, monitoring connectivity, and orchestrating change across your fleet, now is the time to act.

Fragmentation Is Still Holding Us Back

The report shows that service revenue will account for nearly 90 percent of IoT revenue by 2034. But unlike connectivity and module markets, that revenue is spread across a highly fragmented field of service providers. That fragmentation has consequences.

With so many different players in the mix, it becomes harder to build depth of expertise. Everything starts to feel like a one-off. Teams end up reinventing the wheel, building from scratch, and stitching together bespoke tools with limited reuse or institutional knowledge.

We see that all the time. Companies relying on a patchwork of internal systems and siloed workflows. It slows things down, drives up long-term costs, and takes valuable time and energy away from building great products.

This is something we have talked about a lot at EdgeIQ. When you use a platform to manage core infrastructure like software updates, connectivity, and lifecycle events, you give your teams the space to focus on what matters most: designing, building, and delivering better products.

Complexity Is Where the Value Lives

It is easy to focus on volume, but that does not always tell you where the value is. In almost every category, the more complex devices are the ones driving the most revenue. These include robots on factory floors, EV chargers on city streets, and smart medical equipment in clinical settings.

These are not low-cost sensors that quietly collect data. They are products that sit at the center of business processes and customer experiences. And they demand more from the systems that manage them.

That is where platforms purpose-built for connected product operations come into play. The goal is not to replace engineering ingenuity, but to give teams a foundation they can rely on so they are not reinventing the wheel every time a device needs a firmware update or a modem needs a reboot.

The Enterprise Market May Be Smaller, But the Stakes Are Higher

Even though enterprise devices make up only about 20 percent of total volume, they represent a much larger share of the complexity and revenue. These devices are used in more varied environments, interact more directly with people, and often require more care and oversight.

That is why observability matters so much. You need to know what is happening across your fleet, be able to detect and diagnose issues early, and have the tools in place to respond with speed and precision.

We have put a lot of focus into building Observability into Symphony because we believe it is essential. It is not enough to simply see what is going wrong. You need to be able to do something about it.

AI at the Edge Brings New Challenges

Looking further out, the forecast points to a sharp rise in AI-capable devices. By 2034, one in four connected devices is expected to include some form of AI at the edge.

That opens up new possibilities, but it also introduces new layers of complexity. It is no longer just about firmware updates. Now you are managing software, configuration changes, and AI model deployments, all potentially coming from different systems.

You cannot solve that with a one-size-fits-all OTA tool. You need a way to separate how updates are delivered from how they are orchestrated. And you need systems that are flexible enough to adapt as the technology stack evolves.

The Big Picture

If there is a common thread in all of this, it is that the next phase of IoT is going to be defined by operational maturity. Not how fast you can deploy, but how well you can run. Not just how many devices you ship, but how well you take care of them once they are in the field.

That shift is already underway. And the companies that embrace it now will be the ones leading the way ten years from today.

And if you are already thinking about how to build that foundation, EdgeIQ Symphony might be a good place to start. I am always glad to continue the conversation.