History - Internet and IoT

A few milestones in Internet, machine-to-machine, and Internet of Things:

1969 "The first successful message on the ARPANET was sent by UCLA student programmer Charley Kline, at 10:30 pm on 29 October 1969, from Boelter Hall 3420." [wikipedia]
1981 TCP and IP (IPv4) protocols are standardized, in the forms still used today (2015).
1982 One claim of first IoT device, CMU's Coke machine, status (only, no control) via finger protocol.
1990 First Internet-connected toaster, another Thing, first including control. Using SNMP.
1995 First proposal of Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) Specification (RFC 1883)
1999 The term "Internet of Things" was first documented by a British visionary, Kevin Ashton. [Wikipedia]
2000 First refrigerator with Internet is released (LG, price >$20 000). Unsuccessful due to cost and seen an unnecessary and obscure.
2011 Ericsson envisions 50 billion connected devices by 2020. [Ericsson, Feb. 2011]
"Cisco IBSG predicts there will be 25 billion devices connected to the Internet by 2015 and 50 billion by 2020" [Cisco Apr. 2011]
2011 Asia-Pacific (APNIC) runs out of IPv4 addresses on April 14. [Wikipedia]
2011 World IPv6 Day on June 8, 2011 - evaluation of real world use.
2011 Nest Labs releases their first thermostat in November, Internet-connected via Wi-Fi ($249).
2012 World IPv6 Launch Day on June 6, 2012 - "this time, it's for real"
2012 Europe (RIPE NCC) is second area after APNIC to run out of IPv4 addresses (Sept.). [Wikipedia] (Latin America and the Caribbean is 3rd and runs out in June 2014. Finally, North America runs out in September 2015.)
2015 M2MDB enters the market.

Year Internet Hostsa Web Sitesb "Things"d
1969 4 (ARPANET) 0 (first 1990) 0
1990 Nov > 100 thousand 1c 0
1993 1 million Over 200. 0
(Mosaic web browser is also released in 1993).
1996 10 million 257 thousand 0
1999 60 million 3.2 million The term "Internet of Things" was first documented by a British visionary, Kevin Ashton. [Wikipedia]
2001 100 million 29 million
2008-2009 700 million 238 million 'Internet of Things' "born", per definition from Cisco. When more devices, things, are connected than there are people on Earth
2010 800 million 206 million 2011 Cisco, estimation: 12.5 billion (way high...)
2011 850 million 346 million
2012 900 million 697 million 2013 Cisco, estimation: 8.7 billion (broader), 2-3 billion (direct, Things) (Forbese)
2013 1 billion 672 million 2014 Gartner, estimation: 3 billion
2014 1 billion 969 million 2014 Gartner, estimation: 3.8 billion
2015 1 billion area of -"- 2011 Cisco, projection: 25 billion (revised:)
2013 Cisco, estimation: 15 billion (Forbese)
2014 Gartner, projection: 4.9 billion
2020 TBD TBD 2011 Cisco, projection: 50 billion (revised:)
2013 Cisco, estimation: 40 billion (Forbese)
2014 Gartner, projection: 25 billion

a Internet hosts: [1] "Number of Hosts advertised in the DNS", ftp.isc.org/... (2015-04).
b Web sites: w3.org/History.html and internetlivestats.com/...
d nxoc01.cern.ch - first web server ever
d Internet of Things, detailed definition may vary depending on report/source
e Article in Forbes magazine, December 2013, wiith Rob Soderbery, Cisco Executive
(TBD = To Be Determined)