There will be 6.4 billion connected 'things' by 2016

The Internet of Things is in for rapid growth, forecasts Gartner, with 6.4 billion devices predicted for 2016, and 20.8 billion by 2020.

"Aside from connected cars, consumer uses will continue to account for the greatest number of connected things, while enterprise will account for the largest spending," said Jim Tully, Gartner VP and analyst.

But in businesses, the landscape of connected objects is changing.

Those that are specific to their industry, such as hospital operating theater equipment or container ship tracking devices, are known as vertical-specific, and it's that class of device that currently dominates enterprise use.

But more generic devices, such as connected light bulbs, connected heating, ventilating and air conditioning units, and connected building management systems, will be roughly on a par with vertical-specific devices by 2016, and close to double their number by 2020.

The estimates were published during the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2015, which runs November 8-12 in Barcelona, Spain.