No wonder the growth is similarly astronomic - and now Gartner has come up with figures. This year, the number of connected things will reach 4.9 billion units - up 30 percent from 2014. By 2020, this figure will quintuple to 25 billion units, believes Gartner. In this picture, connected cars are a major element.

"The connected car is already a reality," said Gartner research director James F. Hines, "and in-vehicle wireless connectivity is rapidly expanding from luxury models and premium brands to high-volume mid-market models."

The increased consumption of digital content in the car drives the demand for the hardware infrastructure capable of reproducing this content. The sophisticated infotainment systems required to process this content (audio, video, navigation, V2V information, etc.) will translate into business opportunities for all kinds of semiconductors - application processors, graphics accelerators, displays and HMI interface technologies. At the same time, new concepts of mobility and vehicle usage will create new business models which in turn will typically be IT-based, Hines said. The same holds true for the expanding range of alternatives to car ownership, in particular in urban areas.

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