The most popular Internet of Things (IoT) devices in 2022

The most popular Internet of Things (IoT) devices varies from wearable tech to exotic home appliances. Our powerful AI algorithms monitor and defend over 1 billion devices, which needs us to properly identify the types, models, and settings of active devices. These device intelligence algorithms are the reason behind us having some of the most exact statistics about the genuine popularity of IoT products. We have revealed our observations regarding the overall connected device ecosystem in our new research, which goes beyond IoT and encompasses mobile devices, laptops, gaming devices, and many other categories.

Device intelligence is how network service operators (e.g., internet providers) can distinguish devices and their types.

CUJO AI Explorer is the most robust and precise device intelligence solution applied at an unprecedented scale. Read the full report to obtain even more insights regarding common gadget use.

The percentages supplied below show the popularity of IoT products among all connected devices, including smartphones and computers, to provide readers a fuller sense of the real size IoT devices have in the online consumer ecosystem. The two largest device categories – PCs and smartphones – combined make up roughly 62 percent of all linked devices.

What Are the Most Popular IoT Devices?

IoT goes beyond popular products like smart TVs, wearable devices, or smart home appliances. Today, there are hundreds of categories of linked devices ranging from simple sensors to complex or exotic goods.

1. Most Popular SmartWatches

The Internet passed from the computer age to the mobile age, but there are some hints that we have another quickly increasing linked device segment – wearables, notably smartwatches. Our real-world device data clearly reveals that smartwatches are third among all connected devices, trailing only smartphones and laptops.

CUJO AI Labs data

Smartwatches have been around for many years, although these gadgets have seen significantly slower acceptance rates due to battery capacity and general capability. Nevertheless, in 2020-2021 smartwatches are some of the fastest-growing IoT devices in North America, and their popularity has lately seen many jumps.

2. Popular Gaming consoles

Gaming consoles witnessed two surges in popularity in the last 15 months: The first one was when the quarantine started and a second one with the end of the year sales and holidays. While there are only a few main console companies, their market penetration is extremely high, making gaming consoles some of the more prevalent connected devices on home networks.

Our device distribution data also shows that the PlayStation 4 is by far the most popular gaming console, whereas the new PS5 has seen limited utilization due to unit shortages and scalpers buying up the stock and not using the devices themselves.

3. Streaming devices and Smart Tv

Our data reveals that smart TVs and other streaming devices have an established presence in the industry, however, their growth is modest. It is very likely that TVs and other traditional entertainment systems will not become the most popular IoT products in the near future. It is, nonetheless, interesting to monitor the VR headset trends in our comprehensive research, which might suggest a shift towards the next age of entertainment.

4. Voice control IoT Devices

At the end of 2020, voice control devices significantly increased in popularity after the holidays. Overall, these devices seem to have an established presence in the IoT industry.

5. Printers

Linked printers have long been among the most popular connected products. Even though more businesses and households are going paperless, there are still many people and organizations utilizing printers, making them some of the most popular IoT devices in the world.

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6. Cameras

Connected cameras have an established position in the IoT ecosystem, and are some of the most notoriously vulnerable devices. Our device intelligence algorithms constantly block malicious remote access attempts of these devices, as well as automatically monitor them for unusual connectivity trends.

Making up close to 1 percent of all connected devices (including personal computers and smartphones), cameras are an increasingly essential component in the overall network provider security space.

7. Lighting appliances

Smart light bulbs, automated lighting systems, and adaptive lighting solutions were among the initial wave of consumer-grade IoT devices, and are now among the most popular IoT gadgets, with new products arriving on the lighting market every year.

8. Smart thermostats

Keeping people colder or warmer with smarter dynamic controls, smart thermostats have a steady, established segment in the smart home IoT ecosystem and did witness a minor fall in popularity over the last few months.

In terms of the most popular smart thermostat models and manufacturers, Google’s Nest, ecobee, and Honeywell are the most popular brands on the market. For more details about the most popular IoT brands, view the full report.

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9. E-readers

E-readers showed a tremendous +150 percent rise in Q2 2020. Making up a very modest fraction of the entire connected device population (0.3 percent ), this rise in e-reader popularity was quite substantial, even if it did not generate any enduring trend in the year since.

10. Smart doorbells

There are various categories of smart home safety devices, and all of them had similar adoption rates at the start of 2020. Nevertheless, our data reveals that smart doorbells are getting increasingly popular, close to double their quarterly new device counts. On the other hand, connected smoke alarms and smart key locks have tiny yet stable niches in the connected device ecosystem.

11. Alarm systems

As shown above, alarm systems have witnessed a boom, virtually tripling their prevalence among all linked devices.

Rising-star IoT Products

Some IoT items might become highly popular rather soon, even if other IoT devices have more popularity presently. We have evaluated our data to provide four great examples of Internet of Things devices that have garnered substantial popularity recently.

Sports and fitness devices

Gym lockdowns and extra time at home did not deter individuals from exercising, and we noticed a rise in smart fitness and sports devices connected from March 2020 onward. An overall increase of 50 percent in popularity, fitness, and sports gadgets indicate how a substantial shift in the daily habits and living conditions affect the online smart device ecosystem.

Home robots

Roombas and other house robots are not yet popular enough to be among the top IoT gadgets, but our observations of this field leave us convinced that we will see more IoT robots in consumer homes in the coming years.

Connected cars

Still marginal among IoT devices (only 0.05 percent distribution among all connected items), automobiles are progressively gaining traction, and two manufacturers are contending for the lead: Ford and Tesla. Ford has been the more popular connected car brand since last summer, while other manufacturers are failing to carve out a major share of the market, with Subaru being the only other company that had any notable growth in new connections since July 2020.

Smart photo frames

Photo frames–were significant outliers in IoT popularity last year, and experienced massive spikes in new connections. These unique IoT devices allow individuals to connect their external (e.g. cloud storage) images with the frame in their home. Several brands are strong in this market niche, making this an interesting sector to watch in the near future.

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