Cellular connected IoT/M2M devices will increase nearly fourfold from 2014 to 2019

This monumental increase will be driven by a number of factors. First, falling hardware and bandwidth costs enable enterprises to reap the benefits of virtualising the physical world. Second, cloud-based middleware and data platforms are making it easier to securely generate insights from machine data at a greater scale than ever before possible. Third is the awareness of the transformational potential of IoT/M2M for ROI, competitiveness and new business models. This buzz has generated a massive amount of M&A activity.

The latest 451 Research data report shows that connected passenger vehicles and connected energy/smart home will lead the market in terms of connection volume while emerging solutions such as 'pay as you drive' insurance will grow the fastest.

“We continue to be bullish that ultimately the hype of IoT will be proven to be warranted back on business impact,” said Brian Partridge, Research Vice President. “Over the forecast period we expect that M2M/IoT solution suppliers will find fertile ground in vertical markets such as retail and government that will adopt IoT/M2M to enable strategic digitisation strategies such as smart cities and the use of digital signage, mobile point of sale, and connected kiosks to drive the transformation from brick and mortar to click and mortar.”