2014 Corporate Initiatives; market rules are changing

Following several years of rapid growth, the 141 corporate initiatives in 2014 almost matched the 147 events that occurred in 2013.

In 2014, companies in the M2M eco-system were less active in several areas. As illustrated below, there were fewer recorded events of companies either: expanding into new market segments; promoting new technology; and, entering into partnering agreements. Product innovation saw a rise in activity as companies launched new products and services. In general, these addressed the needs for specific customer applications.

2G or not 2G?

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year, AT&T announced a plan to shut down its 2G network by 2017. This event formally confirms the fact that companies need to plan their connected device offerings on the basis of (more expensive) 3G modules (although it should be noted that AT&T had already adopted a '3G only' modules strategy for quite some time).

Several M2M service providers, including Aeris, Sprint and RACO Wireless, subsequently highlighted their commitment to existing, second generation networks and the M2M applications these are able to support. In essence, connected-device companies were being asked “why should they employ more costly 3G modules when (low data rate) M2M applications can be implemented with far less expensive 2G modules?”