Berg Insight estimated that global shipments of cellular machine-to-machine (M2M) terminals totalled 2.7 million units in 2015, and predicted the market will grow at a CAGR of 16.1 per cent through to 2020 when some 5.7 million units will be shipped.
The Sweden-headquartered research company noted that the global cellular M2M terminal market is dominated by four companies from North America and Asia Pacific: Cradlepoint, Sierra Wireless and Digi International in North America; and SIMCom in Asia Pacific.
Jonas Wennermark, Internet of Things (IoT) and M2M analyst at Berg Insight, said the quartet of companies “generated close to $290 million [€258 million] in revenues from M2M terminal sales in 2015,” which equates to a market share in excess of 50 per cent.
In Europe, a “large number of small and medium sized vendors are active”, Wennermark said. Berg Insight identified HMS Networks, Advantech B+B SmartWorx, NetModule, Matrix Electrónica, Eurotech, Gemalto, Dr. Neuhaus, and Option as noteworthy vendors in the European market.
Wennermark explained that vendors in North America face “barriers in the form of carrier certifications required for cellular devices,” suggesting that the greater number of companies active in the European market is due to a simpler approval regime.
Berg Insight explained that it defines cellular M2M terminals as standalone devices that provide the connection for M2M equipment to cellular networks. The definition includes general-purpose cellular routers, gateways and modems that are enclosed in a chassis and have a minimum of one input/output port.
Figures released by the company in June show that shipments of cellular M2M terminals is vastly outpaced by cellular M2M modules. At the time, Berg Insight estimated that some 96 million M2M modules were shipped globally in 2015 and predicted that the figure would hit 256 million units in 2020, based on a CAGR of 21.7 per cent.
The company said that 3GPP standards covering LTE Cat 1, Cat M1 and Cat M2 would provide a significant contribution to cellular M2M module shipments growth over the five year forecast period.
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