The household landscape is changing, due to the growing number of the internet connected devices that has reached 8.1 billion at the end of last year.

The intelligence company HIS has released their study called the Connected Device Market Monitor. They conclude that, in average, it can be found four internet connected devices in every household in the world. Included in this category are tablets, smartphones, PCs, laptops, gaming consoles, smart TVs, smart appliances and more.

The publication ITProPortal reports that Merrick Kingston, the principal analyst for the connected home at IHS Technology, considers that the growing number of connected devices to be found in households worldwide has important "implications" for broadband infrastructure, media production and the business itself of traffic discrimination and network management. He added that these trends are driving IP traffic, media consumption and more.

The North American market is the world's most satured, at 13 connected devices per household. The biggest percentage of household internet connected devices is made up of smartphones. They represent almost half of this percentage and there are approximately half a billion new devices on the market every year.

At the present, smartphones outnumber tablets by 6 to 1. This trend is expected to keep growing. By the year 2020, the smartphone-to-tablet ratio will reach 10:1.

The report also analyzes the Google's competition with Apple battle on in the niche of online TV. For now, Google seems to be winning this fight, at least in terms of the number of devices shipped. In the analyzed period Google shipped 3.2 million Chromecast devices compared to 1.7 million Apple TVs.

Google and Apple, however, are not competing for the same market. Google's victory is not so straightforward, since Apple TV still leads the DMA market. Kingston said that since the introduction of the fourth-generation Apple TV, the two companies have focused on different strategies.