I have
been tracking corporate developments in the M2M market over the past few years. They are useful for
performance benchmarking while also providing insights as to how companies are
implementing strategy and committing to this market.
To date,
every initiative has been expansionary involving a mix of acquisitions, distribution
agreements, innovation and partnering. The divestiture by Sierra Wireless of
its AirCard business, announced on 28 Jan 2013, therefore triggered something
of a database classification challenge. In essence, the company sees a tremendous growth
opportunity in the M2M market while also acknowledging that the data-card
business is on the decline, especially as increasing numbers of Internet
enabled devices already include ‘embedded mobile’. Sierra Wireless has
therefore chosen to exit this business and to direct its investment capacity towards
more promising M2M opportunities.