In the past 18 months, the Cellular Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication market has registered decrease in both shipment volumes and revenue. However, unit shipment volume started growing along with the growing importance of 3G, which is estimated to result in market worth of $3.8bn in 2015, market researcher ABI Research said.
The market observer said that the falling ASPs are the result of the increasing commoditiation of an already crowded market, which is being squeezed further by the entrance of new vendors, particularly from the Asia-Pacific region.
This will result in lower revenue level in 2010 than those of 2007, even with continuing modest growth in shipments.
Sam Lucero, practice director at ABI Research, said: "In 2009, the cellular M2M module market grew somewhat in terms of unit shipment volume, although rapidly declining module prices meant that 2009 revenue was still below that of 2007. Despite its difficulties, however, this market is on an upward path."
The market is also showing some significant M&A activity, with Sierra Wireless acquiring Wavecom; and more recently, Gemalto acquiring Cinterion, a move which, Lucero says, "is likely to lead to positive results for the company, provided that Gemalto focuses on differentiating the Cinterion market offer with an end-to-end platform."
