M2M – back again but it’s different this time.
Machine-to-machine (M2M) communications is back – judging by the number of press announcements released by various players. The Vodafone/Verizon Wireless/nPhase announcement at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona illustrates the point. Forrester is on to the M2M case too. Earlier this month my colleague Michele Pelino published a paper titled The M2M Market Is A Blossoming Opportunity. We have also published a case study on the topic too – see the Forrester paper titled Case Study:How Orange Business Services Is Building a Machine-To-Machine Market. The two reports were planned to complement each other, explaining the big picture and giving a practical illustration of how Orange Business Services is addressing the M2M opportunity.
Of course, those of you with long memories will recall that we have been here before. In our view M2M initially failed to take off because the ecosystem was not in place to enable solutions to be put together easily. But this time it is different – AT&T, Telenor, and Telefonica are all active in the M2M market in addition to Vodafone and Orange Business Services. But what about you – what do you think. I'd be happy to hear your take and discuss further.