BOSTON -- The potentially boundless benefits of machine-to-machine communications (M2M) are still at odds with both expensive network transport and the exorbitant process of integrating M2M modules into the machines they will monitor, according to a new Wireless Enterprise Strategies report from Strategy Analytics, "$40 Billion Cellular M2M Opportunity Hinges on Bluetooth & Zigbee Sensors." This report affirms that while cellular is an inherent M2M enabler and has become more reliable, widespread and secure than ever, even the lowest achievable per-sensor price points over cellular alone will prove to be prohibitively costly for many applications. Unless short-range RF and mesh topologies are brought to bear, M2M will continue to be contained to select vertical markets.

Serving as the glue between disparate wireless networks and fragmented vertical software solutions, this report also concludes that M2M specialists, such as Airdesk and Aeris in the US and Wyless and Netsize in Europe, will play a key catalyzing role in orchestrating M2M solutions and spurring the next phase of adoption. One potential major M2M pitfall is the lack of broad inter-industry cooperation between manufacturers of sensors, RF modules and the machines they will reside in. Without this, hardware integration and development will remain a prohibitively costly sticking point for M2M according to Strategy Analytics experts.

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"Tariffs have become more conducive to M2M as operators like Orange, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon now view a cellular M2M module in terms of its lifetime value, often spanning five years or more. Still, pay-as-you-go pricing and multimodal RF options for module pooling are notably absent," commented Antoine Mathiaud, Senior Analyst. "Unfortunately, this rules out many 'exception reporting' scenarios where a machine would report in only when it is in need of attention."

Strategy Analytics Inc.