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The number of cellular network connections used for machine-to-machine communication will grow from 37.5 million connections in 2007 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37.9% to 186 million connections in 2012, according to new a research report from Berg Insight. GSM and legacy technologies currently dominate the market and accounted for about 71% of the total number of active connections at the end of 2007. CDMA was the second largest technology with a strong foothold in North America and parts of Asia-Pacific, while WCDMA has so far primarily been adopted for machine-to-machine applications in Japan. Elsewhere the adoption is held back by high component costs and limited network coverage.
At the moment, machine-to-machine applications in general correspond to between 13% of the reported number of mobile subscribers in developed markets. In Sweden and Finland the share is closer to 10% due to extensive use of GPRS for meter reading applications. However, Berg Insight forecasts that vehicle telematics applications will dominate the machine-to-machine cellular market in most parts of the world and account for more than half of all network connections in 2012.
“Safety and security concerns manifested either in public regulations or customer preferences is tipping the balance in favor of massive rollouts of telematics applications by the global automotive industry”, says Tobias Ryberg, Berg Insight’s senior analyst. “In North America, OnStar already gives peace of mind to millions of drivers. Europe is well on the way to introducing the eCall automatic emergency call system and several Latin American countries are considering mandatory tracking devices on all new cars to combat epidemic vehicle crime.”
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
