Ericsson says 6G is approaching while the IoT market still faces high module prices, inadequate coverage and support, and technological confusion. The company’s latest Mobility Report also points to a possible “supercycle” that could carry smart glasses and other connected physical AI device form factors.
The same report says chipset vendors are interested in being in the next generation from the start. That is a better fit for the 6G hype cycle than for the cellular IoT market that 5G was supposed to expand.
Ericsson’s 6G pitch centers on new device types
Ericsson’s Mobility Report describes a supercycle as an unusually strong multi-year upgrade wave. In that scenario, smart glasses and other connected physical AI device form factors become the lead use cases rather than the afterthought.
The report is also trying to reset expectations around who shows up early. Ericsson says chipset vendors want to be in the next generation from the start, which is a reminder that device and silicon roadmaps will shape how quickly 6G gets beyond slides.
5G IoT did not deliver the forecast
The article contrasts that optimism with the last cycle’s miss. Dave Evans predicted in 2015 that there would be 50 billion IoT devices in the world by 2020, but the Ericsson Mobility Report said the world had 22.3 billion IoT devices last year.
The analysis puts Evans’s forecast 27.7 billion devices too high five years after its target date. That gap is the bluntest indicator in the piece that the cellular IoT market never matched the original narrative.
Read for IoT module and chipset planning
For module vendors, chipset suppliers, and operators planning device roadmaps, the message is simple: 6G will not escape the same adoption constraints if module prices and coverage stay the bottleneck. Ericsson is betting the next wave will come from new form factors, not from a broad IoT revival on 5G’s timetable.
What the device count means for 6G forecasts
The 22.3 billion device figure gives a current baseline for anyone modeling IoT demand into the next cycle. It also shows why 6G forecasts built on blanket device-count growth deserve a tighter look at which devices are actually supposed to arrive first.