ABI Research (News - Alert), a leading provider of in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies, has recently published the results of its latest study on the M2M Research Service. The study includes report on many Machine to Machine (M2M) market trends which have been quantified in ABI Research’s “M2M Market Data.” The M2M Market Data presents statistics and provides forecasts for shipments, connections, and revenue segmented by region, application, and air interface standard, as well as reporting annual market shares for M2M embedded module vendors for 2010.

In a release, the Practice Director, ABI Research, Sam Lucero, said that, “The operator-module vendor deals we are seeing today may cause that ASP to be reached much sooner for the overall WCDMA market. The operators, in contrast, want all data devices on the network to use the most spectrally efficient technology 3G or even 4G rather than 2G. It makes sense for the mobile operators to do whatever they can to facilitate adoption of 3G/4G technology by the M2M ecosystem. The AT&T (News - Alert) and Sprint deals are examples of just such symbiosis: large mobile operators using their size to benefit typically much smaller M2M application developers. AT&T is working with Ericsson (News - Alert), Huawei and ZTE (the latter two being leading China-based module vendors) while Sprint has selected Fusion Wireless, an innovative new CDMA-focused module vendor based in San Diego, California. We anticipate other mobile operators in North America, as well as in other regions, will come to similar arrangements to help facilitate M2M application development.”

Recently, mobile operators AT&T and Sprint (News - Alert) formed partnerships with cellular embedded module vendors in order to provide modules for M2M application developer partners at discounted rates. AT&T and Sprint aim to encourage application developers to adopt 3G and 4G M2M modules, and provide the same services at lower prices. The M2M market is comprised mainly of low data rate, low data consumption applications which are based on 2G technology. M2M application developers tend to stay with older technology that is adequate from a connectivity standpoint and more optimized from a cost component standpoint. For example, a 2G GSM/GPRS cellular embedded module had cost approximately $18 in 2010; however, a 3G WCDMA module was priced at roughly $65. According to the ABI Research forecast, WCDMA module shipments are expected to grow from less than four million in 2010 to more than 62 million by 2016.