A new report from Machina Research predicts that Machine-to-Machine in Consumer Electronics represents a huge commercial opportunity.
Machina Research’s Connected Intelligence report Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Communication in Consumer Electronics 2010-20 forecasts that:
- The installed base of M2M connected Consumer Electronics devices will exceed 4.2 billion by 2020. By 2020, North America will be the third largest regional market in terms of device count, representing 21% of the market. Europe will be the largest market, representing 29% of connected Consumer Electronics devices, and Developing Asia Pacific markets will represent 27% of the total device count.
- The White Goods market will begin to adopt M2M connectivity in the out years of the forecast, as smart metering and pro-active energy management become more prevalent. At the start of the forecast, however, the count of connected devices is dominated by Audio Visual Sources (mostly Computer Gaming Consoles) and Personal Multimedia (mostly Mobile Gaming Consoles).
- Total traffic generated by M2M applications in Consumer Electronics (and carried over wide area networks) will exceed 700 Exabytes annually by 2020. The vast majority of this traffic (99%) will be generated by web-TV applications, with internet radio generating the buk of the remaining traffic. However, Consumer Electronics applications will generate only approximately 1.6 Petabytes of mobile network traffic by 2020. The majority of this traffic will be generated by a few niche applications, including household Internet Information Devices, digital Photo Frames digital Cameras and Mobile Games Consoles. Tracking Applications (for children and pets) will generate only approaching 0.5 Petabytes of wide area wireless traffic by 2020
- The total market for M2M connected Consumer Electronics will grow to approaching EUR 400 billion in 2020.
According to Jim Morrish (Director):
“The role that mobile operators, and mobile connectivity standards, might potentially play in the Consumer Electronics market is severely limited by the cost of WWAN embedded modules. Chipsets for Wi-Fi and other short range communications technologies generally contribute under USD 2.50 to Bill of Materials costs, and often less than USD 1.00. By comparison, 3G embedded modules cost of the order of USD30-60, with 4G costing more still, and effectively price the technology out of the highly competitive Consumer Electronics market. If those prices don’t fall, then the mobile industry might just have to sit out the opportunity for M2M connected consumer electronics and stick to already established mobile broadband devices.”
