Summary Bullets:

• IoT platform vendor dropouts were in the news in 2023, suggesting not only consolidation but reduced demand and profitability concerns.

• While hyperscalers remain leaders, industrial stalwarts such as PTC, Software AG, and Siemens are still innovating and enhancing platforms with security, easy of use, and integration with adjacent products in their portfolios.

Over the last year, the most compelling changes in the market for enterprise IoT platforms were the dropping out of key vendors including Google Cloud IoT (in August 2023), presumably based on lack of revenues/profitability; the decommissioning of most services from SAP’s IoT PaaS offering, announced at end-2023; and IBM’s winding down of its Watson IoT platform service in December 2023, with IBM focusing instead on offering IoT capabilities via its hybrid cloud solutions and software. In addition to these dropouts of platforms, which focused on IoT application enablement, products focused on connectivity and device management, such as the Ericsson IoT Connectivity platform, changed hands, having been sold to IoT MVNO and platform vendor Aeris. Some of the other original leaders have also marginalized their IoT offerings, embedding them in vertical solutions, or combining IoT with big data and AI tools, positioning IoT primarily as a data collection enabler. Industrial stalwarts Software AG and Siemens, however, are becoming innovators in this market, with good reviews for functionality, vertical solutions, and contributions to positive ROI.

Summary Bullets:

• IoT providers that have led the market for years continued to press forward in a more mature but still unpredictable market, navigating technology and commercial disruptions while considering new growth opportunities

• Pricing, competition, consolidation, eSIM, and trends in the key connected car space (including growth in 5G connections) were among the issues discussed in analyst briefings

Leading traditional IoT connectivity providers from the ranks of mobile network operators broke little or no news at MWC 2024 held in Barcelona, although each maintained an impressive presence in terms of exhibits, speakers, and IoT business leaders. Disruptive IoT MVNO and platform provider 1NCE did manage to draw significant attention from its booth near the food trucks, launching a unique offer for emerging high data requirements use cases priced simply at EUR5 per gigabyte. 1NCE has been offering prepaid low bandwidth services (ten years for $10) for use cases such as smart metering, street lighting, and asset tracking for several years. Now it has innovated again, offerings speeds of up to 25 Mbps for video surveillance and industrial monitoring requirements using its flat rate pricing for data usage.

Continue reading “MWC24: IoT Providers are Navigating Market Consolidation and Uneven Growth” →

Summary Bullets:

• In H2 2023, there were fewer public announcements of new services leveraging IoT from ITSPs than in previous periods.

• IoT is not new (or as exciting as AI) and so is not frequently featured in press releases these days. However, as 5G/5G SA, FWA, private networks and IoT-enabled sustainability use cases were positive enablers of IoT momentum in 2023, IoT remains important to both mobile operators and ITSPs.

IT Service Provider IoT Announcements in 2023

• December 2023: Accenture and Mujin established Accenture Alpha Automation, a JV for the manufacturing and logistics industries. It will help companies automate management infrastructure with solutions that combine data from manufacturing and logistics operations with management data. The JV is owned 70% by Accenture and 30% by Mujin.
Continue reading “Fewer ITSP Announcements on IoT Services in H2 2023 Doesn’t Mean IoT is No Longer Important” →

Summary Bullets:

• eSIMs first emerged in 2016, with strong potential for adoption in both consumer applications and industrial IoT.

• A new standard was published earlier in 2023, which will make using eSIMs for IoT easier for device makers and enterprise users, likely prompting growth in cellular IoT market opportunities.

SIM cards have long been a tool for mobile operator control of user devices. Dedicated to and often issued by an operator, once inserted in a device, there is a good chance the device would remain subscribed to the operator’s service as long as it was being used. ‘Control’ may be too strong of a word, but plastic SIMs certainly helped maintain a high level of customer ‘stickiness.’ Swapping out SIM cards – which provide user identification and authentication for network access – is a slow and clunky process whether there is one device or 10,000 devices involved.