• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, November 11, 2015

Now it looks like there may be more than 6 billion connected things in use around the world as soon as next year, with most of them being used by consumers.

While many projections around the scope of the Internet of Things tend to look at several years away, one study just out takes a look at the short-term future, as in the next year.

The forecast for the number of connected objects next year will be an increase of 30% from this year, according to the latest Gartner estimate.

The research firm says that 5.5 million new things will get connected every day next year.

By 2020, the number of connected devices will reach 21 billion. Other recent IoT studies peg that number at 24 billion or 30 billion.

Excluding connected or smart cars, consumers will account for the largest number of connected things. That translates to 4 billion connected things being used by consumers next year, reaching 14 billion within five years.

Here are the projections for the number of Internet of Things devices to be used by consumers, by year:

• 2014 – 2.3 billion
• 2015 – 3 billion
• 2016 – 4 billion
• 2020 – 14 billion

The amount of money consumers spend for connected objects also is significant. Estimated consumer spending for next year is projected at $546 billion and more than $1 trillion by 2020.

All of those connected things will comprise a new and massive scale of connectivity.

And the ultimate goal is to connect all those things to create new value for consumers. Much of that value will be in the messaging that is to be created and will ride along the platform of connected objects.