IBM and Cisco have maintained their positions as the top two smart city vendors, according to a leaderboard report from Navigant Research.
However, the competition in the market is becoming more serious as cities look to deepen their supplier relationships and plan for larger-scale programs and deployments.
Schneider Electric, for example, has significantly upped the tempo of its smart city strategy and is leveraging broader company initiatives to strengthen its smart city proposition.
The introduction and rapid acceptance of Microsoft’s CityNext program has led to a jump in its ranking, from 11th last year to fifth this year.
The appearance of Ericsson and Huawei among the contenders reflects the core role of communications and IT infrastructure in smart cities and the growing ambitions of suppliers in this market.
Navigant’s top 10 smart city suppliers are:
- IBM
- Cisco
- Schneider Electric
- Siemens
- Microsoft
- Hitachi
- Huawei
- Ericsson
- Toshiba
- Oracle
As cities commit to programs for sustainability, innovation in public services and economic development that depend on technology investments, the supplier ecosystem for smart cities continues to expand. Intel and the city of San José, California, are collaborating on a public-private project, known as Smart Cities USA, which is expected to help drive San José’s economic growth, foster 25,000 clean-tech jobs and create environmental sustainability.
Navigant expects the global smart city technology market to be worth more than $27.5 billion annually by 2023, compared to $8.8 billion in 2014.
The Navigant Research Leaderboard Report examines the strategy and execution of 16 leading smart city suppliers with the capacity to provide leadership on large-scale smart city projects spanning multiple operational and service areas. These smart city suppliers are rated on vision, go-to-market strategy, partners, product strategy, geographic reach, market share, sales and marketing, product performance and features, product integration and staying power.
