The M2M market is becoming hard to define due to its rapid evolution, according to a report from Current Analysis.
Called “Trend Watch: M2M Ecosystem Update”, the report divides the M2M market into four segments – modules and devices, management platforms, connectivity, and applications. But it said that partnership efforts within the M2M market were being spread “aggressively” across different markets.
“M2M ecosystem players have aggressively diversified their M2M partnership efforts across the board to address a wider range of customer needs,” it says. “This includes more partnership efforts among operators, M2M application platform vendors, service management vendors, and device and module suppliers.”
Meanwhile, operators are looking for a more central role in M2M deals, including integrating cloud and middleware platforms to help position them as providing the connectivity and logical mediation point for assembling the M2M ecosystem partners.
Mobile broadband device suppliers such as Sierra Wireless and Novatel Wireless are targeting M2M application development opportunities to expand beyond their commoditised device revenue base, says the report. This includes integrating their devices with M2M-specific technologies such as asset tracking to position themselves as cloud and middleware-based platform providers for M2M application development.
This should extend capabilities such as industrial control element connections, custom business logic generation without programming overhead, and the accelerated deployment and operation of new services aimed at verticals such as fleet and asset management, e-health and energy management.
One barrier to global M2M deployment, it says, is the high roaming charges for 3G connections. As such, collaboration in the area of delivering embedded multi-mode international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) sim technology is aimed at reducing the costs and complexity of international roaming for global M2M services.
“This technology can act as a local sim and deliver local pricing regardless of the country the M2M equipment is located in and can enable carriers to avoid striking preferential roaming agreements or compelling M2M customers to craft separate deals with different operators,” it says.
Many manufacturers are already integrating 3G data transmission in their modules to future-proof their products against the eventual non-availability of 2G networks and the re-farming of 2G spectrum for 3G spectrum applications. But the report says the higher costs and region-specific air interfaces of 3G services are causing problems. For this reason, 4G modules will increasingly be used.
“The potential of 50 billion connected M2M devices by 2020 promises to push demand for the deployment and adoption of significantly more M2M connections, which in turn will require dramatic innovation in the network, devices and management of M2M communications,” the report says.
The reports lists the M2M players to watch and gives its long-term outlook for the market, estimating between 250 and 300 million global M2M connections by 2015 with Europe accounting for 37% of them and North America 27%. It also analyses short-term drivers and priorities.
The report was written by analysts Ron Westfall and Kathryn Weldon.
