The arrival of the Internet of Things marks a major watershed in the global consumer economy. Internet connections will be built in to a massive quantity of new products, from air conditioners to light bulbs and security alarms. These will all be controlled through apps and websites, and feed data into the cloud.

Startups specialized in home automation, established consumer electronics giants, and large Silicon Valley-based tech companies are all poised for a huge battle over this new consumer space, sometimes also referred to as the "Connected Life" market.

In a new report from BI Intelligence, we examine the forces and numbers driving growth in the consumer Internet of Things or IoT, including the mind-boggling numbers for total market size. It's difficult to overestimate the importance of the Internet of Things because it will come to encompass all manner of products we don't normally think of as high-tech, such as UV-filtering window shades and door locks. We also look at the enterprise market for the Internet of Things.

Here are some of our top findings:

The report is full of charts and data that can be downloaded and put to use.

In full, the report:

To access BI Intelligence's full report, Here Comes The Internet Of Things, sign up for a free trial subscription here. Subscribers also gain access to over 100 in-depth reports on social and mobile, and hundreds of charts and datasets.