M2M Finally Arrived?
by Paul Ruppert
Ten years ago while I was with PacBell Mobile Services, I recall a meeting with a number of GSM CEOs which I got to sit in on covering a brief about how SIM cards could be installed in sprinkler systems and electricity metes. The water flow could be controlled remotely and your kilowat usage wouldn’t need to be read by the now extinct “meter man.” That was my first exposure to “machine to machine”–M2M–messaging.
There’s been a resurgence in M2M applications and I think it is about to take off, especially for one specific company: Jasper Wireless. First the ecosystem is taking shape with the biotic factors such as demand and the abiotic factors such as technical approaches are finally falling into place. At CTIA I had a podcast interview about the M2M business with Macario Namie, Sr. Dir. of Product Marketing for Jasper.
SIM Roaming driving M2M
Jasper’s approach is quite innovative. Instead of running over another network running SMS or data through aggregators or a carriers’ carrier, the interaction with a machine runs through their own network. How? Cleverness in their business approach.
Jasper is a US-based mobile operator licensed by the US FCC. Hence, Jasper establishes global technical network through the convention of roaming agreements with fellow GSM operators around the world. Jasper’s value differentiator is their issuing a SIM card to various equipment/machine manufacturers to establish a global network through their roaming partner networks. As a former International Roaming Director I find this an innovative breakthrough of using existing technology, a well established business convention in a completely different manner. That’s “low cost” innovation, combined with commercial cleverness, which will yeild considerable value for the company. They provide global connectivity on a local basis, managing all the complexities for global enterprise machine verticals, with a central consolidated billing. Pretty slick.
Numbers, Numbers: SIMS in Copying Machines, Escalators & Vending Machines
M2M solutions are applied to point of sale terminals, service fleet tracking, vending machines, even pachinko machines in order to monitor, measure and repair as necessary. Jasper by engaging the OEMs directly have the chance to drive a scalable, global business quickly. And they are. Jasper becomes the sole provider requiring just one SIM, one certification process, one rate card of data charges to a company where all this machine monitoring data can flow through on behalf of the various enterprise verticals they serve.
A study last year from ABI Research reports that 18 million M2M modules were shipped in 2006 and it is expected to grow to 90 million in 2012. That’s roughly 2.5% of the global handset market. It is estimated that there are 10 machines for every person on earth. Some analysts estimate the spend on mobile infrastructure installed in machines to be an $8 to $10 billion market by 2012. I’d say that is a scalable play, and is the core opportunity space for Jasper. This will be a great IPO–low key, big impact.
Listen to my conversation with Macrio Namie of Jasper Wireless here and learn more about the M2M inflection point.
