According to Cisco, in 2012, there were 8.7 billion connected objects globally, constituting 0.6 per cent of the ‘things' in the world and in 2013, this number is exceeding 10.0 billion.

The report stated that driven by reducing price per connection and the consequent rapid growth in the number of machine-to-machine (M2M) connections, the number of connected objects is expected to reach 50 billion by 2020 (2.7 per cent of things in the world).

It expects connectivity costs to reduce at a CAGR of 25 per cent during 2012-20, which is approximately equal to the growth in number of connected objects. Further, it says that over 50 per cent of the connected objects added during 2013-20 will be added in the last three years of the decade. This also implies that the maximum connected objects are likely to be added when connectivity costs are the lowest.

To estimate the number of connected objects during 2013-20 it first estimated the total number of ‘things' in the world and then determined the proportion of connected things.