Machina Research has published its annual report, M2M Global Forecast & Analysis 2011-22. It provides a detailed analysis of the global opportunity for machine-to-machine communications, notably that M2M connections will hit 18 billion in 2022, generating US$1.2 trillion revenue.
The key findings are:
•Global M2M connections will increase from two billion at the end of 2011 to 18 billion at the end of 2022. Connections will be dominated by two sectors: consumer electronics (including cameras, music players and TVs) and intelligent buildings (e.g. security and HVAC systems). Between them they will account for almost 70% of the total.
•Short range technology will dominate: 73% of M2M devices will be connected by shortrange technologies, mostly WiFi. Cellular/wireless wide area network (WWAN) connections will grow from 146 million at the end of 2011 to 2.6 billion in 2022. The most important WWAN sector is Automotive (including pay-as-you-drive insurance, emergency/eCall and security and tracking), accounting for 60% of connections. At the end of 2011 M2M accounted for 2% of cellular connections. By 2020 this will reach 22%.
•By 2022 Europe and Developing Asia-Pacific will be tied as the biggest region for M2M, each accounting for 27% of connections. The biggest single markets will be the China and the US with 20% and 19% respectively.
•In terms of revenue2, M2M will grow from US$200 million in 2011 to US$1.2 trillion in 2022, a CAGR of 18%. Two-thirds of the revenue opportunity is accounted for by devices and installation, and one-third by M2M services.
•Machina Research estimates that 90% of the USD400 billion M2M service revenue is accounted for by the ‘service wrap’ and 10% by the provision of connectivity. Of the US$39 billion connectivity service revenue, the majority comes from service enablement (US$29 billion) with just US$9 billion coming from the provision of basic cellular connectivity.
