This may not really be fresh news for those who follow Machine-to-Machine communications but well, China has emerged as the global leader in the adoption of M2M technology, with over 50 million connections, or more than one quarter of the total M2M market, in 2013.
According to ‘How China is Set for Global M2M Leadership’, a new report issued today by the GSMA, close collaboration between the country’s leading mobile operators China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, state-owned enterprises and the government had enabled the market to grow dramatically in a relatively short period of time, laying the foundations for further expansion and the development of the Internet of Things (IoT).
Key to this growth was the revelation that China’s leading mobile operators had developed sophisticated M2M service propositions that go beyond the provision of basic connectivity, typically combining a generic horizontal platform, designed to work across all industry sectors with dedicated vertical platforms for specific application areas, such as automotive or healthcare.
“China is a rapidly developing country that is investing in communications technologies that will make its cities smarter and provide a better quality of life for its citizens,” said Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology Officer, GSMA. “Proactive government support has benefitted China and its mobile operators, whereas in many global markets, regulatory uncertainty has held back the deployment of M2M solutions. The addressable market and the opportunity for further growth is immense, especially when one considers the sheer number of ‘things’ such as cars or domestic appliances that could potentially be connected by mobile.”
Asia, incidentally, is the largest regional M2M market, accounting for 40 percent of the world’s 189 million M2M connections at the end of 2013, according to the GSMA. The region added 55 million M2M net connections between 2010 and 2013, and China was the primary driver of growth, adding nearly 39 million M2M connections during the period. Demand from the energy and transportation industries has driven much of this early growth, while M2M solutions are also gaining traction in the automotive, smart city, healthcare, education and retail sectors.
The report also revealed that China’s leading mobile operators had developed sophisticated M2M service propositions that went beyond the provision of basic connectivity. These typically combined a generic horizontal platform, designed to work across all industry sectors with dedicated vertical platforms for specific application areas, such as automotive or healthcare.
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