Over the next five years, shipments of consumer machine-to-machine devices are forecast to grow at a 39.8% compound annual growth rate to reach 37.9 million devices in 2016, according to a new research report from Berg Insight. According to the firm, the number of consumer M2M devices shipped with cellular connectivity grew to 7.1 million worldwide in 2011, up from 6.4 million the previous year.
Berg Insight estimates that the number of connected M2M consumer devices reached 12.7 million at the end of 2011. Growing at a CAGR of 38.6%, the number of network connections from consumer M2M devices are expected to reach 65 million in 2016, with e-readers, personal navigation devices, digital cameras and handheld gaming consoles among the most common consumer M2M devices.
Mobility, connectivity and personalization are three of the most important current trends within consumer electronics, the firm noted.
“Cellular connectivity gives the freedom of being connected everywhere and there are already 12.7 million consumer M2M devices in use worldwide,” noted in statement Johan Svanberg, senior analyst at Berg Insight.
North America is expected to be the major market for M2M, accounting for about 5 million of the total device shipments in 2011. The second largest market is Europe with 1.7 million device shipments, followed by the rest of world with approximately 500,000 device shipments.
However, the market for consumer M2M devices is still in its early stage, noted Berg Insight.
“In a not too distant future, a substantial part of all content and services will be delivered through mobile channels. All companies – from device vendors, content owners to service providers – need to prepare for this change and have a well thought out mobile strategy in order to stay relevant,” added Svanberg.
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