Table 3.

Our prediction of the COVID-19’s impact on IoT adoption in short-term and mid- to long-term. ✓ indicates accelerated adoption, ✗ indicates decelerated adoption, and – indicates that the adoption is both positively and negatively impacted in different subareas. Number of ✓ and ✗ indicate how strong the positive and negative impacts are expected to be, respectively.

Sector	Short-Term			Mid- to Long-Term			Explanation
	Demand	Investment	Adoption	Demand	Investment	Adoption
Healthcare	✓✓✓	✓✓✓	✓✓✓	✓✓✓	✓✓✓	✓✓✓	There is a huge demand for efficient and effective healthcare driven by larger number of patients, overburdened facilities and overworked hospital staff due to the COVID-19. Governments and organisations have invested heavily to combat the pandemic and IoT adoption is expected to grow at a significant pace both in the short-term and mid- to long-term.
Smart Homes	✓	✗	✗	✓	✓	✓	People are spending more and more time at home due to lockdowns and work/study from home trends that are expected to stay. Financial stress on households is holding back the IoT adoption in the short-term but an accelerated adoption is expected in the mid- to long-term.
Smart Buildings	✓	✗✗	✗	✓	✓	✓	Tracking, monitoring and cleaning requirements imposed by governments have increased the demand for IoT. However, the recession has made it difficult for most of the organisations to invest in new IoT projects. Thus, despite some initiatives, the short-term impact is negative on IoT adoption. However, in the mid- to long-term, accelerated adoption is expected once the financial stress is eased.
Smart Cities	✓✓	✓✓	✓✓	✓✓	✓✓✓	✓✓✓	Smart and resilient cities have become even more important to be prepared for future pandemics and emergencies. IoT is being deployed for various applications especially tracking and monitoring. Adoption is expected to gain pace in mid- to long- term when financial stress is eased.
Transportation	✗	✗✗	✗	✓	–	–	Sharp decline in transportation usage has adversely affected revenue, which has negatively affected the adoption of IoT. Although some areas (e.g., logistics, in-cabin analytics) are still gaining some attention, overall trend is negative. Mid- to long-term impact appears to be mixed with accelerated adoption expected in logistics but relatively stable in public and private transports.
Industrial IoT	✓✓	✗✗	✗✗	✓✓	✓✓	✓✓	Applications like remote equipment monitoring and inventory management have increased the demand but the industries are finding it hard to invest in IoT due to the financial strain. In the mid- to long-term, an accelerated growth is expected due to the importance of IoT to keep industries operational in future pandemics or emergencies.