M2M market analyst firm, Beecham Research, has published a report ‘Global M2M Connectivity and Services Forecast’ (price $US2600) in which it predicts that the number of cellular M2M connections worldwide will increase from 172 million in 2013 to one billion by 2020, but with a note of caution in the face of what it says is “increasing hype around the future of M2M and the Internet of Things.”
Robin Duke-Woolley, founder and CEO of Beecham Research, said: “Unfortunately there are some ludicrous, multi-billion connected device forecasts around at present for M2M and IoT that betray a complete lack of understanding about how the market really works. Much faster growth rates are just not realistic in this market because enterprises do not assimilate new technologies into their business processes that quickly.”
Beecham Research principal analyst, Saverio Romeo, said his company had been studying the M2M market since 2001 and had built up an unrivalled network of M2M contacts across the world. However, he said: “While the M2M market is growing strongly, we have seen some excessive predictions that simply create unrealistic expectations.”
The Beecham Research report is claimed to “provides a quantitative study of the M2M market globally, per region, per sector and by technology, based on the following key indicators: M2M active SIM connections, monthly M2M SIM ARPU, connectivity cellular revenues and SES platform revenues … [and] an assessment of all other connectivity technologies used for M2M applications – both fixed and wireless.
