A new report by the International Data Corporation (IDC) indicates that investments in smart city initiatives will amount to more than $81bn globally in 2018, with Singapore, Tokyo, New York City, London and Shanghai as main investors.
The Worldwide Semiannual Smart Cities Spending Guide highlights fixed visual surveillance, advanced public transit and smart outdoor lighting as largest use cases that will attract nearly one quarter of smart cities spending in 2018 and forecasts that spending will increase in 2022 to reach $158bn.
"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 around the world," said Serena Da Rold, program manager in IDC's customer insights and analysis group.
The US is the largest country market for smart city spending (over $23bn in 2018), followed by China. The above mentioned use cases are among the top five, however new ones have emerged and include mobile video capture and recording in the US and Latin America, and digital permitting, licensing, and inspection in the Middle East and Africa region.
"IDC expects to see strong, continued investment by the private and public sector in urban areas and in smart cities and communities programs and projects," added Ruthbea Yesner, vice president of IDC's smart cities and communities programs.