Smart Phones – Smart Enough for M2M?

Posted by on Sep 7, 2010 in Back Office, Blog | 0 comments

The rise of M2M and, concurrently, today’s growing interest in using smart phones to perform M2M functions raises a question — Where M2M is concerned, will smart phones’ retail approach to BSS one day live side-by-side with or overlap systems specifically designed for M2M?

Machine-to-machine communications has been around for ages. What’s fueling its current revival: Interest from a variety of vertical sectors in finding a good, low-cost way to automate mobile connectivity between millions of devices that, one day, could potentially be handling billions of transactions. For mobile operators, M2M is a low ARPU business compared to H2H (human to human — my coinage). But the sheer volume of the transactions makes M2M more than worthwhile.

Enter a new twist via the smart phone. Some pundits now suggest that smart phones are well-equipped to handle a “new” app: M2M. Consider how the M2M market might ramp up if that particular prediction comes true. Google currently activates more than 200,000 Android units per day. A recent report by Netmarketshare notes that iPhone usage is growing at twice the rate of the Android’s. Talk about a mouth-watering market opportunity. . .

However, such a possibility also raises questions. When a smart phone is involved in M2M, is it really M2M, or is it M2H (human) or some blend thereof? Which BSS model applies — dedicated or retail?

Maybe these are dumb questions. If so, I hope one of our smarter readers will enlighten me. I’ll stick by my mobile device.

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