Embedded mobile & M2M devices to rise to 412m globally by 2014

According to Juniper Research, the number of Mobile Connected M2M and Embedded Devices will rise to almost 412 million globally by 2014 with several distinct markets accounting for the increase in their number.

The markets include: Utility metering, Mobile Connected Buildings, Consumer & Commercial Telematics and Retail & Banking Connections. These areas will all show substantial growth in both device numbers and in the service revenues they represent, while Healthcare monitoring applications will begin to reach the commercial rollout stage from 2012:

"The most widespread category will be connections related to smart metering, driven partly by government initiatives to reduce carbon emissions," says Anthony Cox, Senior Analyst at Juniper Research. Other areas, such as the healthcare sector, will ultimately see more potential in achieving service revenues, he says.

Further findings include:

Saturation in operators' core businesses is leading mobile operators to re-evaluate and invest in the potential of M2M

  • Operators and M2M specialists recognise that scale is key, since ARPU for M2M and embedded devices is lower than for standard mobile services
  • Regulatory initiatives in different geographical areas will provide an important fillip for the M2M market such as European Directives on smart metering
  • With the exception of certain consumer applications such as mobile gaming and eReaders, 3G's use for M2M applications will be limited for the immediate future as M2M usually does not require the high bandwidth 3G affords. Article