Cellular M2M connections to top 297M in 2015

ABI Research forecasts steady growth for cellular M2M (machine-to-machine) connections, set to surpass 297 million in 2015. The previous 2009 forecast of about 225 million connections by 2014 has also been raised to 232.5 million. However, there are many regional differences within this global picture. Europe will maintain the largest regional share with 110 million connections in 2015; North America will rank second with 79 million and the Asia-Pacific region third with nearly 66 million.

ABI Research practice director Sam Lucero comments, "The major world regions show different drivers for cellular M2M markets. The European market is the most diversified and has the most mature deployments. The EU benefits from regulatory mandates surrounding eCall and smart energy. In North America the focus has traditionally been more on telematics, although M2M is now growing strongly in other areas including smart energy. Both telematics and energy are providing impetus in Asia-Pac, but the markets are less mature, outside of key countries such as Japan."

Particularly, key operators offering M2M in Asia are NTT DoCoMo in Japan, Korea Telecom, and China Mobile, which recently announced that it is operating five million M2M connections. In Europe, significant providers include Telefonica in Spain, Telenor (Scandinavia), Orange Business Services (part of France Telecom), and Vodafone. The four major cellular operators in North America, Verizon Wireless (operating on GM's OnStar service), AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile are all bringing M2M service, in addition to alternative providers such as Kore Telematics and Numerex.

Likewise, some business model and operational differences exist. European providers lean towards not only setting up distinct M2M business units, but also supplying those units with their own M2M-specific infrastructure. They are quite oriented towards offering value-added services in addition to basic M2M connectivity. In contrast, North American operator M2M business units are oriented towards using the operators' main networks for M2M.

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