ABI Research’s (News - Alert) M2M Market Data, which tracks the M2M market on the basis of wireless WAN embedded modules and product revenue, as well as wireless WAN active connections and service revenue, has forecasted a compounded annual growth rate in excess of 25 percent. This indicates that in 2013, the number of cellular M2M connections active worldwide will have exceeded 180 million.

More than merely suggesting the rapid growth of the M2M market, what is more apparent is the accelerated adoption of M2M service delivery platforms (SDPs), which enable the management of cellular connections to remote devices and machines and also act as provisioning, management, and billing platforms for connected devices.

A small flurry of activity on the M2M service delivery platform front was witnessed over the past few months, when Telstra (News - Alert) , the incumbent mobile operator in Australia, announced its adoption of the Jasper Wireless Control Center SDP, the Canadian mobile operator TELUS announced its adoption of Sierra Wireless’ (News - Alert) AirVantage SDP, and Sprint in U.S. announced deployment of its own “indigenous” SDP.

Commenting on the deployment of an in-house SDP, ABI practice director Sam Lucero said,

“Over the past decade the key providers of SDP functionality have been M2M-specialized MVNOs and alternative, non-carrier, connectivity service providers. But as mobile operators had become much more directly and prominently involved in the M2M market in the last two years, many have introduced their own SDPs, either ‘home-grown’ or sourced from third parties.”

According to ABI Research, this trend indicated that mobile operators, who were not already in the M2M market, would largely opt for third-party platforms to save time and development costs that were needed to develop an SDP in-house.

In addition to shipments, active connections, and revenue segmented on the basis of region, application, and air interface standard in respect of the M2M market, M2M-embedded module vendor annual market share, for the calendar year prior to that in which the Forecast Database is published, would be provided on a total unit shipment basis.

Mini Swamy is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Tammy Wolf