Shipments of consumer M2M devices estimated to reach 13.8M in 2017

Berg Insight has reported shipments of consumer M2M devices with cellular connectivity reached 5.3 million worldwide in 2012. In the next five years, shipments are forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.1 percent to reach 13.8 million devices in 2017, as per Berg Insight. The other findings and analytical points released by Berg Insight includes: This relatively new breed of connected devices – neither classified as handsets, PCs, tablets nor traditional M2M devices – have strong growth potential. Today, e-readers and PNDs are the most common consumer M2M devices already shipping in millions. The consumer device market is changing rapidly and dedicated devices are facing fierce competition from multipurpose devices such as smartphones and tablets. Introducing wireless connectivity is one strategy to meet this threat and new connected products such as the Galaxy camera range from Samsung as well as smaller scale success stories such as the PocketFinder from Location Based Technologies show the market potential for cellular connected consumer devices. Emerging device categories such as personal tracking, wearable technology and digital cameras are well suited for embedded cellular connectivity and have high growth potential in the coming years. Berg Insight predicts that by 2017, smart watches will be the most sold consumer M2M device ...