Cellular M2M connections are expected to show steady growth, topping at 297 million in 2015, said ABI Research. ABI Research (News - Alert) provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies. In the latest update to ABI Research’s forecasts, the 2009 forecast of about 225 million connections by 2014 has been raised to 232.5 million.

Within this worldwide picture, however, are many regional differences.

According to ABI Research, Europe continues to account for the largest regional share with 110 million connections in 2015; North America will rank second with 79 million and the Asia-Pacific region third with almost 66 million.

“The major world regions show different drivers for cellular M2M markets. The European market is the most diversified and has the most mature deployments. The EU benefits from regulatory mandates surrounding eCall and smart energy,” said Sam Lucero, practice director at ABI Research, in a statement. Lucero said that in North America the focus has traditionally been more on telematics, although M2M is now growing strongly in other areas including smart energy. He said that both telematics and energy are providing impetus in Asia-Pac, but the markets are less mature, outside of key countries such as Japan.

Key operators providing M2M in Asia are NTT DoCoMo (News - Alert) in Japan, Korea Telecom, and China Mobile, announced that it is serving five million M2M connections.

In Europe, important providers include Telefonica (News - Alert) in Spain, Telenor (Scandinavia), Orange Business Services (part of France Telecom), and Vodafone. The four major cellular operators in North America, Verizon Wireless (which operates GM’s OnStar service), AT&T (News - Alert), Sprint and T-Mobile are all offering M2M, in addition to alternative providers such as Kore Telematics and Numerex.

ABI Research noted that some business model and operational differences exist, too: European providers tend not only to set up distinct M2M business units, but to supply those units with their own M2M-specific infrastructure.

And they’re more oriented towards providing value-added services in addition to basic M2M connectivity. North American operator M2M business units, in contrast, tend to use the operators’ main networks for M2M.

“Cellular M2M Connectivity Services” discusses these market trends, analyzes cellular M2M connectivity service provider strategic responses, and forecasts cellular M2M connections and revenue growth for the period from 2007 through 2015, segmented by region, application, and air interface standard.