The latest IDC report said Smart City initiatives will receive technology investments of more than $81 billion globally in 2018 and $158 billion in 2022.
Fixed visual surveillance, advanced public transit, and smart outdoor lighting are the three largest use cases, which will attract nearly one quarter of global Smart Cities spending in 2018.
Smart city tech spending in 2018
Asia Pacific — 42 percent
Americas 33 percent
Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) 25 percent
Intelligent traffic management will overcome smart outdoor lighting in third position by 2022, IDC said. Top three use cases will account for one fifth of total spending, as smaller and fast-growing use cases emerge and reach critical mass by 2022.
Officer wearables and vehicle to everything (V2X) connectivity, in particular, will generate the fastest growth, although they currently start from a small base in most regions.
“Intelligent transportation and data-driven public safety remain the largest investment areas, but we are also finding significant pockets of spending and growth in back-office and platform-related use cases, which are less often publicized but increasingly happening behind the scenes in cities,” Serena Da Rold, program manager in IDC’s Customer Insights & Analysis Group, said.
The United States is the largest country market for Smart City spending (over $23 billion in 2018), followed by China.
Singapore, Tokyo, New York City, London, and Shanghai are leading the global Smart City spending in 2018.