Here are the top Internet of Things companies to watch and potentially invest in 2020

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Disclaimer: This article does NOT constitute investment advice. All investment and financial opinions expressed in this article is from the research and experience of the author and is strictly intended as educational material. 

The Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to be worth trillions of dollars by 2020, and several companies and startups will certainly reap the benefits of that explosion. But investors can do the same if they know which IoT stocks to watch.

Each of the companies and startups below rates as one of our IoT companies to watch, as each one is doing something innovative and important in the IoT space. These range from IoT startups to more established IoT companies to invest in.

Honeywell

One of Honeywell’s major focal points is the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), the integration of digital technologies into manufacturing. This puts the emphasis on information rather than physical machinery, even for areas that traditionally require physical labor.

In 2019, Honeywell launched a software solution called Honeywell Forge to help industries collect, analyze, and act on the data coming from the various parts of their operations. This could position the company well for the future of the IIoT. According to Honeywell’s thought leadership study that polled 600 U.S. business professionals, 70% invested “significant” amounts in IIoT, and 9 in 10 believe IIoT will pay for itself.

Amazon

The e-commerce titan had a significant first-mover advantage with the Amazon Echo, which enabled it to set the pace for the smart speaker market. From there, the company has been expanding the capabilities of its voice assistant, Alexa, which now boasts more than 50,000 skills.

Alphabet

Despite Amazon’s early lead, Google’s parent company has become a true competitor with its Google Home smart speaker. In fact, Google Home added 600,000 more U.S. users than Amazon Echo in 2018, and the device continues to permeate the market.

Verizon

While T-Mobile jumped into the IoT pool first with a dedicated team in 2008, signs point to Verizon racing out ahead in the IoT space among its peers. The telecom giant will likely be the first to deploy a 5G network in the U.S., which makes it poised to be the leader in wireless connectivity in the next decade.

GrubHub

A food delivery service might seem an odd choice for an IoT company, but it checks all the boxes. Mobile device penetration and usage is increasing each year, and Seamless has become the go-to name in on-demand meal delivery. Combine those two factors and you have a recipe for a company that can take advantage of the IoT space.

Apple

Apple has also entered the smart speaker space with its HomePod, but the device has yet to gain the same foothold as the Amazon Echo and Google Home. But the tech giant has carved out its territory in the wearables space, as the Apple Watch continues to lead the pack in smartwatches.

Visa and MasterCard

The two leaders in the credit card space are poised to benefit from the increasing proliferation of non-traditional payment methods. Mobile, voice, and connected device payments adoption is increasing each year, so these two giants should be well positioned to capitalize on that growth.

What’s Next?

The Internet of Things (IoT) is powering transformation for enterprises, consumers, and governments. Emerging tools and technologies like smart speakers, machine learning, and 5G are enabling huge gains to efficiency and more control at home and in the workplace.

The continued growth of the IoT industry is going to be a transformative force across all organizations. By integrating all of our modern day devices with internet connectivity, the IoT market is on pace to grow to over $3 trillion annually by 2026.

Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider’s premium research service, is keeping its finger on the pulse of this ongoing revolution by conducting our third annual Global IoT Executive Survey to create The Internet of Things Report, which provides us with critical insights on the most pivotal new developments within the IoT and explains how top-level perspectives are changing year to year. Our survey includes nearly 400 responses from key executives around the world, including C-suite and director-level respondents.

Through this exclusive study and in-depth research into the field, Business Insider Intelligence details the components that make up the IoT ecosystem. We size the IoT market and use exclusive data to identify key trends in the connected devices sector. And we profile the enterprise, governmental, and consumer IoT segments individually, drilling down into the drivers and characteristics that are shaping each market.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• We project that there will be more than 64 billion IoT devices by 2025, up from about 10 billion in 2018.
• Blockchain within the IoT is still generally the provenance of startups, and they’re populating the marketplace with products that take advantage of the technology’s characteristics. It’s not going to upend the IoT, despite the technology’s much-ballyhooed potential. And respondents to our survey of IoT providers seem, for the most part, to understand this. Just a small percentage think that blockchain will become a universal standard in the IoT. The vast majority said that blockchain will either be a tool that most companies employ at times, or a niche product that only certain solutions use.
• Lightning-fast 5G networks will change how telecommunications shapes business and will also offer new and transformative possibilities in the IoT space. The new standard will further increase the appeal of cellular solutions in the areas where it’s available. And that’s why nearly half of IoT providers said they’re planning to introduce support for 5G networks to their solutions within the next two years.
• The report highlights the opinions and experiences of IoT decision-makers on topics that include: drivers for adoption; major challenges and pain points; deployment and maturity of IoT implementations; investment in and utilization of devices; the decision-making process; and forward- looking plans.

In full, the report:

• Provides a primer on the basics of the IoT ecosystem.
• Offers forecasts for the IoT moving forward, and highlights areas of interest in the coming years.
• Looks at who is and is not adopting the IoT, and why.
• Highlights drivers and challenges facing companies that are implementing IoT solutions.

Interested in getting the full report? Here are a few ways to access it:

1. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. >> Purchase & Download Now
2. Sign up for Connectivity & Tech Pro , Business Insider Intelligence’s expert product suite keeping you up-to-date on the people, technologies, trends, and companies shaping the future of connectivity, delivered to your inbox 6x a week. >> Get Started
3. Join thousands of top companies worldwide who trust Business Insider Intelligence for their competitive research needs. >> Inquire About Our Enterprise Memberships
4. Current subscribers can read the report here.

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the fast-moving world of the IoT.

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