IBM isn’t often mentioned in the media as being a leader in the rapidly growing Internet of things market, but it is quietly putting out a substantial corporate investment in it.
Back in March, the venerable all-purpose IT provider announced that it was investing a cool $3 billion and hiring 1,400 workers into a new business unit that would create, develop and market products and services that would fit into the Internet of things bucket. That investment places it No. 1 in the world on the list of companies that are betting a whole lot on this market, which is already quite active.
According to a listing compiled by the research firm IoT Analytics, IBM—with that huge $3 billion commitment—is now No. 1 in the world in IoT investment, followed by Google, Intel, Microsoft and Cisco Systems. Apple, SAP, Oracle, Samsung and Hewlett-Packard round out the top 10.
The second 10 are ranked in this order: Ericsson, Amazon, GE, Qualcomm, AT&T, Orange, BlackBerry, Facebook, Dell and Verizon.
Other findings of the Q2 2015 IoT companies’ ranking:
–Intel, which had previously been No. 1, has fallen to the third position.
–The race between the five big companies (IBM, Google, Intel, Microsoft and Cisco) continues. Apple is starting to join the pack as a sixth company.
–What is striking about IBM is that the American software giant now employs more than 1,400 employees in the Internet of things, almost 50 percent more as the second biggest IoT employer (Cisco).
–SAP remains the highest ranked non-U.S. company (seventh).
–The list includes a number of new entries to the top 20 list, including Ericsson, Qualcomm, Orange, Facebook and Dell.
–Gartner, ARM, Accenture, Arduino, IDC and PTC have fallen out of the top 20.