Right now, in 2013, 80 "things" per second are connecting to the internet.  Next year that number will reach almost 100 per second, and by 2020, more than 250 things will connect each second.

Add all of these numbers up, and we believe that more than 50 billion things  will be connected to the internet by 2020.  Today we're launching the Cisco Internet of Everything (IoE) Connections Counter so that we can watch in real time as everything comes online.

By the way, what are all of these "things"?  Mobile devices, parking meters, thermostats, cardiac monitors, tires, roads, cars, supermarket shelves, and yes, even cattle.   The list is endless, and it just keeps getting longer and more interesting.  Literally, by the second.

Even more exciting is when all of these things are combined with people, process and data via the network to deliver transformational value to the world by improving the way we make decisions, saving us time and money, and so much more.  That's the Internet of Everything, and its value increases every time we connect the unconnected.

So we're paying close attention.  The connections counter will help us keep track of exactly where we are in this journey, starting now and continuing through 2020.

We encourage you to keep track as well.  Cisco invites journalists, analysts and other interested parties to check out the IoE Connections Counter and to feature it in your own content.

Let the countdown to 2020 and 50 billion connections begin!

Our methodology: To estimate the number of connected objects during 2013-20 we first estimated the total number of 'things' in the world and then determined the proportion of connected things. For 2012, we had estimated the total number of 'things' in the world to be 1.5 trillion and the number of connected objects to be 8.7 billion, implying 0.6% penetration rate of connected objects. We expect the number of things to reach 1.8 trillion in 2020, growing 3% annually. Subsequently, we have assumed that connectivity costs will decline by 25% annually during 2013-20. Conservatively, we assume the price-elasticity of demand to be ~1 and consequently expect annual growth in number of things to be 25% CAGR during 2013-20. Based on these assumptions, we estimate that the number of connected objects to reach ~50 billion in 2020 (or 2.7% of the total things in the world).