The number of Mobile Connected M2M and Embedded Devices will rise to almost 412 million globally by 2014, predicts market research firm Juniper Research (News - Alert).

Ever increasing number of utility metering, mobile connected buildings, consumer & commercial telematics and retail & banking connections will drive the growth in embedded devices, said the researcher in its latest report titled “Embedded Mobile and M2M Research.”

 

M2M market includes just about every object with an embedded mobile SIM card, excluding mobile phones, and the report says the healthcare market could see one of the biggest growth over the next few years.

 

According to the report, 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 roll out stage from 2012.

“The most widespread category will be connections related to smart metering, driven partly by government initiatives to reduce carbon emissions,” said Anthony Cox (News - Alert), senior analyst at Juniper Research. Other areas, such as the healthcare sector, will ultimately see more potential in achieving service revenues he says.

 

With operators seeing their core business saturating they are increasingly investing in M2M. Operators and M2M specialists recognize that scale is a key, since ARPU for M2M and embedded devices is lower than for standard mobile services, says the analyst.

 

According to the research firm, 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, says the researcher.

 
The report includes analysis on current state of play in the Embedded Mobile and M2M market and contains six year forecasts for key mobile M2M parameters and service revenues.