Simplicity and flexibility will determine winners
But surprisingly, there isn't the same consumer enthusiasm for personal tracking according to a Sept., 2011 report from Market Strategies and in that market the technology is ahead of the adoption curve. The study revealed that only 51 percent of consumers are interested in a GPS locator for family members, a GPS locator for pets and identity monitoring at schools and daycares.
A promising new M2M market segment called “aging in place” takes advantage of M2M monitoring to let people stay independent as they age, rather than being forced to move to a facility.
“It changes how families manage their futures,” Horn says. “Using M2M technology you can take home monitoring systems to a whole new level. Products where you can let Dad, Grandma, Mom stay at home but you can monitor pill intake, how much time they've spent in the bathroom or sleep or eating, and then create algorithms so if something changes you can see that and get a caregiver over there if needed. You can build a system that learns their routines and helps you know if those routines change.”
Flexibility Matters for Solutions, Networks
In Feb., Sprint and M2M partner OnAsset launched the industry's first dual-mode CDMA/GSM asset tracking solution that expands the reach of the tracking capabilities and adds flexibility. This means that one device can track assets anywhere in the globe. For businesses that require shipping expensive cargo all over the world, this kind of increased M2M flexibility will continue to spur enterprise adoption and realize the “everything, everywhere” promise of M2M.Â
According to ABI Research analyst Sam Lucero, The OnAsset Sentry is likely to come in at the top end of the fledgling cellular asset-tracking market in terms of both cost and capability, PC World reported. ABI expects the overall market for cellular remote monitoring and maintenance, including monitoring of stationary assets as well as items in transit, to grow rapidly over the next few years. Network flexibility, even for mobile networks, which are already viewed as hugely flexible in the M2M ecosystem, need to look not just as current market demands, but those of the near future. M2M traffic will represent 5 percent of 2016 global mobile data traffic while residential broadband mobile gateways will account for the remaining 5 percent of global mobile data traffic, according to Cisco. The availability of 2G and 3G bandwidth, make them a natural fit for many M2M solutions.
Some projections say M2M could boost U.S. wireless penetration from the current 90 percent to a staggering 500 to 600 percent by 2013, with M2M connections far outpacing mobile handset buyers in a huge growth spurt for the telecom industry. But a report from Juniper Networks warns that wireless networks need to prepare for the evolving needs of M2M, rather than just the current demands.
“We like to talk about killer applications for wireless cellular. Many people think the next killer application is video streaming, which is estimated to represent up to 60 percent of data volume,” The report says. “Today, M2M might not be perceived as a killer application segment. However, even though M2M is expected to have applications predominately for low data usage (some might generate higher traffic in the case of video surveillance), the order of magnitude for M2M endpoints that will connect to the network is significant.”
Bleeding Edge
Then there's a recent announcement we just made with OpenMotion, in which RACO's solution powers OpenMotion's ConnectNow Custom Gift Card Kiosk, which is a self-service system that allows consumers to design gift cards from their favorite retailers with their own personal touch, allowing retailers to overcome the most cited reason keeping consumers from purchasing a gift card--that it may be perceived as impersonal. The kiosk uses the RACO Wireless Omega Management SuiteT (OMS) platform for subscriber identification module (SIM) management and can do real-time credit card authorization and gift card activation, among other things.
It is yet another example of how the growth of M2M communications is revolutionizing industries-by allowing critical data and information to be communicated from one machine to another very reliably and in a manner that generates a powerful return on investment very quickly. The prepaid card market for retailers is expected to grow from $279 billion in 2012 to $329 billion in 2014, and applications like the ConnectNow Kiosk are likely to accelerate that growth even more.
