Global IoT enterprise drone shipments to grow 50% in 2020

Worldwide shipments of the internet of things (IoT) enterprise drones will total 526,000 units, an increase of 50% from 2019, according to technology research firm Gartner. 

The shipments are expected to reach 1.3 million units by 2023. Construction and insurance sectors will see the highest use cases, according to a statement from the firm. 

“The construction sector is an early adopter of drones, which causes construction monitoring to be the largest use case by shipments worldwide across the forecast. Shipments are estimated to reach 210,000 drones in 2020, and more than double by 2023,” said Kay Sharpington, principal analyst at Gartner. 

According to Gartner, the insurance industry is the second largest use case by shipments with 46,000 drone shipments forecast for 2020. The shipments are expected to nearly triple to 136,000 by 2023. 

The research firm also said that police and firefighting agencies globally are deploying drones in public safety operations, wildfire management, crime scene investigation, and search and rescue operations.

The number of drones used by police and firefighters will grow from one per 210,000 people to one per 47,000 people between 2018 and 2020.

Fire service drones use cameras and thermal imaging to identify fire sources, extreme heat areas, trapped people and the positions of firefighters in the field, Sharpington added. 

The adoption of drones in the retail sector to rise rapidly after 2023, Gartner said.

Drones have moved from being used by hobbyists to finding enterprise application.  France based Delair, Switzerland-based senseFly and Flyability are among companies manufacturing drones for industrial uses. 

The marketplace for IoT related services is expected to reach $96 billion in sales by 2023 in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, data analytics firm Globaldata had recently said in its report. 

Emerging technology is growing at a fast pace across the world. Last month, the technology research firm said that worldwide public cloud revenue will grow by 17% in 2020. It also estimated that the blockchain will generate $3.1 trillion new business value by 2030.