The global installed base of connected vending machines grew by 18.4 per cent to 1.16 million units in 2014, Berg Insight announced. Just over half a million of these machines have been installed in North America, whereas 150,000 machines were located in Europe. The research company predicted that the number of connected vending machines worldwide will grow at a CAGR of 18.5 per cent to reach 2.7 million units by 2019. As a result, the global penetration rate will reach 15.3 per cent at the end of the forecast period.