Amid waning demand, cellular IoT module market faces another challenging quarter in Q3 2023, according to Counterpoint Research.

• Despite a decline in shipments, Quectel continued to lead, followed by Fibocom and China Mobile.
• The top five applications – smart meter, automotive, POS, router/CPE and telematics – accounted for over 60% of total cellular IoT module shipments.
• Against the backdrop of muted demand, full-year shipments for 2023 are expected to decline by 5%.

Global cellular IoT module shipments saw a 2% YoY decline in Q3 2023, according to Counterpoint’s latest Global Cellular IoT Module and Chipset Tracker by Application report.

Weaker demand, rising interest rates and cautious spending from enterprise IoT players are some of the important factors for slowdown in this market.

For the first time, the 5G market’s share in the global cellular IoT module market crossed 5%, indicating traction for 5G adoption. However, 5G applications are currently limited due to the lack of killer use cases and higher prices. We are only witnessing early adoption in the router/CPE, PC and automotive markets.

The IoT module market is undergoing a technology transition from 4G Cat 1 and NB-IoT to 4G Cat 1 bis. The low-cost and power-efficient 4G Cat 1 bis is becoming popular for many applications, including POS, smart meter, telematics and asset tracking.

Commenting on the market dynamics, Associate Director Mohit Agrawal said, “The top five applications, encompassing smart meter, automotive, POS, router/CPE and telematics, accounted for over 60% of total cellular IoT module shipments this quarter. Notably, only the smart meter and router/CPE segments observed positive growth in shipments, with other applications experiencing a decline.

India stands out as the only region to register positive growth in the global cellular IoT module market. Conversely, the market outside of China and India saw a steeper decline compared to China. Contrary to industry expectations, the market is not gaining momentum.”

• Quectel, the market leader, and Telit Cinterion, one of the leading international vendors, experienced a decline in shipments. This trend mirrors the prevailing conditions in both the Chinese and global IoT module markets. However, Quectel showed a slight improvement in performance in the global market on a sequential basis.
• In contrast, the other two vendors in the top five – China Mobile and Fibocom – saw positive growth. This growth was driven by smart meter, asset tracker and POS for China Mobile and router/CPE applications for Fibocom. China Mobile recently established a subsidiary, BILIN’ZHILIAN, to accelerate its module business growth.
• Certain Chinese brands such as Unionman, OpenLuat and Lierda exhibited positive performance from a niche perspective. Their growth was fuelled by applications in smart meters, asset tracking and POS.

Commenting on the future outlook, Senior Research Analyst Soumen Mandal said, “Global cellular IoT module shipments are projected to experience a 5% YoY decline in 2023. However, demand revival is expected by the second half of 2024, with substantial growth predicted for 2025, coinciding with the mass adoption of 5G and 5G RedCap.”

“In the long term, the cellular IoT module market holds promise and applications such as smart meter, router/CPE, POS, automotive and asset tracking will be driving most of the growth for this market.”

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Berg Insight presents a unique database covering the 500 largest cellular IoT deployments identified as part of the company’s world-class IoT market research activities since 2004.

The extensive list includes various types of projects and product categories deployed across all types of vertical markets including OEM automotive, aftermarket automotive, transport & logistics, utilities, infrastructure, buildings & security, retail, industrial, consumer electronics, healthcare and other. The database includes project size and geographical distribution by the end of 2022 as well as a 5-year forecast for each individual project.

“The projects included in the top-500 list together account for approximately 548 million active cellular IoT subscriptions”, said Rickard Andersson, Principal Analyst, Berg Insight.

He adds that this corresponds to as much as 20.6 percent of the total number of cellular IoT connections worldwide at the end of 2022. The 500 projects on the list are in the coming years forecasted to grow to 1,024 million units by 2027, corresponding to an overall compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.3 percent.

Mr. Andersson continued:

“More than 100 deployments on the list have reached 1 million subscriptions or more, and the top-10 projects alone account for over 183 million units.”

Transport & logistics is the largest vertical in terms of the number of projects that made the top list, followed by aftermarket automotive, retail, utilities, OEM automotive, buildings & security and healthcare.

“When comparing the number of active subscriptions represented by each vertical for the entries in the top-500 list, OEM automotive is instead the largest vertical, accounting for 191 million units, ahead of utilities at 118 million units and transport & logistics representing 97 million units”, concluded Mr. Andersson.

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Berg Insight estimates that the global installed base of active off-highway vehicle telematics systems reached 7.9 million units in 2022.

This includes connected units deployed on various off-highway vehicles across the construction, mining, agriculture and forestry sectors. The construction sector accounts for the largest share, driven by OEM telematics systems offered by heavy equipment manufacturers. Agriculture and mining moreover each account for a similar number of connected units deployed on machines and vehicles used in agricultural and mining operations respectively. The remainder is represented by the forestry sector including telematics systems fitted to various forestry equipment. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.1 percent, the active installed base of off-highway vehicle telematics systems across all sectors is forecasted to reach 14.6 million units worldwide in 2027.

“The top-10 equipment manufacturers offering telematics together account for around 70 percent of the total number of off-highway vehicle telematics systems in use across the construction, mining, agriculture and forestry sectors globally”, said Rickard Andersson, Principal Analyst, Berg Insight. Berg Insight ranks Caterpillar as the leading off-highway vehicle telematics provider.

“Far from surprising, the leading equipment manufacturer by market share is also by far the top player when it comes to the number of off-highway vehicle telematics subscribers”, said Mr. Andersson.

He adds that this is a natural development in an industry where telematics has increasingly been included as standard with the machine purchase, gradually covering more models and equipment categories.

“Caterpillar was the first to surpass the milestone of 1 million connected assets across all segments and the company now has more than 1.4 million units”, said Mr. Andersson.

The runners-up are SANY and Komatsu. Other major manufacturers with estimated installed bases of more than 100,000 units include Volvo Construction Equipment, Deere & Company, XCMG, Hitachi Construction Machinery, JCB, HD Hyundai and Doosan Bobcat.

“Additional players having estimated installed bases of off-highway vehicle telematics units in the tens of thousands include CNH Industrial, Liebherr, Terex, JLG Industries, AGCO, CLAAS Group and Tadano”, concluded Mr. Andersson.

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According to a new research report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight, the global market for precision agriculture solutions is forecasted to grow from € 3.1 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.4 percent to reach about € 5.2 billion in 2027.

A set of technologies are applied in precision farming practices, which are aimed at managing variations in the field to maximise yield, raise productivity and reduce consumption of agricultural inputs. While solutions such as auto-guidance and machine monitoring and control via on-board displays today are mainstream technologies in the agricultural industry, telematics and Variable Rate Technology (VRT) are still in the early stages of adoption. Interoperability between solutions remains a challenge, although initiatives to provide common protocols and language structure for data sharing are making progress.

Most major agricultural equipment manufacturers have today operations related to precision agriculture with varying strategies. Leading vendors of precision agriculture solutions include the world’s largest manufacturer of agricultural equipment Deere & Company, followed by the precision technology vendors Trimble, Topcon Positioning Systems, Raven Industries and Hexagon. Major input manufacturers like BASF, Bayer, Corteva Agriscience and Syngenta have entered the space primarily through acquisitions and focus on providing mapping tools and decision support for the purpose of input optimisation and yield maximisation. A group of companies have surfaced as leaders on the nascent market for in-field sensor systems. These include Semios, Pessl Instruments with its METOS brand, Davis Instruments and Sencrop.

The move from automation to autonomy is the next step in the evolution of the agricultural industry. “Although autonomy on a component level has been exploited by multiple manufacturers, autonomous agricultural operations on an equipment level are now on the rise”, said Veronika Barta, IoT analyst at Berg Insight.

Today, original equipment manufacturers are developing autonomous machines such as driverless tractors and seed-planting robots. Agricultural drones are the most advanced segment, performing autonomous operations by utilising multispectral cameras, LiDAR sensors and route algorithms. Aerial imagery for crop monitoring is the most common application area, followed by spraying operations of crop protection chemicals. Satellite navigation, sensors, artificial intelligence and machine learning will be the main facilitators of autonomous equipment in the future of farming.

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According to a new research report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight, the global installed base of connected vending machines reached an estimated 5.8 million units in 2022.

North America represents the largest share of these machines, closely followed by the Rest of the World markets. Both are estimated to have installed bases of around 2.1 million each.

In Europe, the installed base of connected vending machines is estimated to have reached around 1.5 million units. Berg Insight forecasts that the number of connected vending machines worldwide will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.4 percent to reach 12.3 million units by 2027. As a result, the global penetration rate will reach 75.7 percent at the end of the forecast period.

The global connected vending solution market is served by a variety of players. Many of the leading providers are specialised technology companies offering connected vending telemetry and cashless payment solutions. US-based Cantaloupe is established as the clear leader in terms of installed base with more than 900,000 connected vending machines, mainly in North America.

Other leading technology suppliers include Crane Payment Innovations, Nayax, Ingenico and Televend (INTIS). The latter has continued to show significant growth and is clearly established as a top player on the European market. MatiPay, Vianet Group and Vendon are additional examples of technology players with relatively significant installed bases in Europe. In China, InHand networks holds a prominent position and is estimated to have installed its solutions in close to 300,000 vending machines by the end of 2022.

“The number of connected vending machines continues to grow and has now reached very high levels, particularly in North America”, said Felix Linderum, IoT Analyst at Berg Insight.

In Europe and the Rest of the World markets penetration levels are still modest but growing. Overall, cashless payments continue to be the main driver for adding connectivity in vending machines.

“This development was further reinforced by the Covid-19 pandemic”, continued Mr. Linderum.

He adds that because of the pandemic, there has been an accelerated adoption of cashless and contactless payments as users seek versatility, convenience and safety to a larger extent than before. Outside of North America and Europe, the main driver for growth is the growing installed base of connected vending machines in China. While stringent lockdowns enforced during the Covid-19 pandemic led to a slowdown in the country, there has been a noteworthy surge in the number of vending machines in China over the past few years. Berg Insight anticipates that the country is poised to emerge as a key player in the connected vending space.

Mr. Linderum concluded:

“Mobile payments and remote management of multimedia content are basically standard on the vending machines in China. Facial recognition technology is also a growing trend and enables pay-with-your-face functionality.”

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According to a new research report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight, there were a total of 2,900 private LTE/5G networks deployed across the world at the end of 2023, including trial and pilot deployments.

Private 5G network deployments are moving from trials to commercial operations and amounted to an estimated 700 networks whereof trials accounted for close to half. Until 2028, the number of private LTE/5G network deployments are forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 33 percent to reach 11,900 networks at the end of the period. Increasingly, the networks will be deployed into commercial operations faster as there is less need for use case testing. A meaningful number of private LTE network deployments will also be upgraded to 5G, starting in the next 2–3 years.

Berg Insight defines a private cellular network as a 3GPP-based private LTE/5G network built for the sole use of a private entity such as an enterprise or government organisation. Referred to as non-public networks by the 3GPP, private LTE/5G networks use spectrum defined by the 3GPP and LTE or 5G NR base stations, small cells and other radio access network (RAN) infrastructure to transmit voice and data to edge devices.

“The major RAN vendors (Ericsson, Nokia and Huawei) all play significant roles as integrated solution providers and are challenged by a number smaller RAN equipment providers”, said Fredrik Stalbrand, Principal Analyst, Berg Insight.

Nokia counts the largest number of private network deployments with more than 635 private cellular network customers at the end of Q2-2023.

Mr. Stalbrand continued:

“The vendors increasingly pursue channel-led sales strategies, and have developed ecosystems of mobile operators, system integrators, VARs and consulting partners to bring solutions to market.”

A number of small cell and other RAN equipment providers including Airspan Networks, Baicells, CommScope, JMA Wireless, Mavenir, Samsung Networks, Sercomm and ZTE provide competitive LTE/5G radio products and in some cases complete private network offerings.

Important specialised core network software vendors include Druid Software, Athonet (acquired by HPE in June 2023), as well as Affirmed Networks and Metaswitch (both part of Microsoft since mid-2020). In total, EPC/5GC offerings are available from close to 30 vendors. A third category is IT-centric players like Cisco and HPE. These companies focus on delivering fully integrated Wi-Fi and private LTE/5G solutions, enabling network managers to administer Wi-Fi and private LTE/5G networks through a single pane of glass. Celona is a new entrant in the space, backed by NTT Data and Qualcomm, offering its integrated private cellular solution in a single SaaS subscription.

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According to a new market research report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight, the number of micromobility vehicles available worldwide will reach 38.2 million by 2027, up from 25.3 million vehicles in 2022.

Micromobility services are defined as shared mobility services that offer short-term rentals of light vehicles such as bikes, scooters or other similar vehicles. The micromobility market has been characterized by rapid growth, a high pace of merger and acquisitions and many shutdowns of services during the past few years.

“The market is now reaching a more mature stage and operators are generally more focused on reaching profitability, which was not the case in previous years”, said Martin Cederqvist, IoT Analyst at Berg Insight.

Bikesharing is a decentralised bicycle rental service, usually focusing on short term rentals. Traditionally, most bikesharing operators have used station-based operational models. This operational model requires members to pick up and return the vehicle at any designated station within a city. In Europe and North America, station-based bikesharing is the most popular operational model. Another model that is rapidly gaining in popularity is free floating services, which enables members to pick up and drop off vehicles anywhere within a designated area. The total number of shared bikes worldwide reached an estimated 23.7 million vehicles at the end of 2022, of which a large majority are free floating bikes in China. Prominent bikesharing operators include Hellobike, Meituan Bike, Didi (Qingju), JCDecaux, Nextbike (owned by Tier), Hello Cycling, Docomo Cycle, Anywheel, Yulu, RideMovi, Bolt, Lime and Donkey Republic.

The stand-up scootersharing market has gained a lot of attention from media and investors and have grown rapidly since its inception in 2017. At the end of 2022, the number of shared stand-up scooters reached an estimated 1.5 million vehicles.

“Leading stand-up scooter operators include Bolt, Tier and Voi in Europe, Bird and Lime in North America as well as Neuron Mobility, Swing Mobility and Beam Mobility in Asia-Pacific”, said Mr Cederqvist.

The regulatory environment surrounding stand-up electric scooters is complex and varies between region, country, state and city level. Today, some cities limit the number of stand-up scooters allowed on the streets through mandatory operator licences. The cities can both restrict the number of operators allowed in the cities, but also the number of vehicles each operator is allowed to deploy. The sit-down scootersharing market has not been regulated to the same degree. At the end of 2022, the number of shared sit-down scooters in shared mobility schemes reached an estimated 120,000 vehicles. Leading sit-down scootersharing operators include Vogo and Yulu in India; Marti Technologies in Turkey; Cooltra, CityScoot, Felyx, Emmy and Check in Europe; Revel in North America as well as GoShare and WeMo in Taiwan.

Telematics has been a key element since the inception of shared micromobility services. Bikesharing infrastructure vendors provide complete solutions including telematics hardware solutions, user identification and bike locks, information kiosks as well as fleet management platforms and mobile apps.

Companies specialising in bikesharing solutions include PBSC (owned by Lyft), Lyft, Nextbike (Tier), Fifteen, Vaimoo, Youon Bike Technologies and Conneqtech. Scootersharing operators now mainly utilise factory-installed telematics systems embedded in the scooters. Shared mobility software platforms moreover comprise complete systems that can support all the operational activities of a micromobility operation ranging from management of in-vehicle equipment, fleet management, booking management, billing as well as operations supervision via dashboards and data analytics. Leading micromobility telematics solution providers include Comodule, Drover AI, Luna Systems, Invers, Teltonika, Queclink, Atom Mobility, Joyride Technologies, Wunder Mobility, Zoba, Urban Sharing and Omni Intelligent Technology.

Mr Cederqvist concluded:

“In recent years, micromobility operators have added increasingly complex telematics applications such as sidewalk riding detection as well as features ensuring parking compliance. The usage of AI and machine learning models are increasingly common in such applications.”

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The number of active fleet management systems deployed in commercial vehicle fleets in Australia and New Zealand was around 1.4 million units in Q4-2022 according to a new research report from the leading IoT analyst firm Berg Insight.

Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.5 percent, this number is expected to reach more than 2.4 million units by 2027. A large number of vendors are active on the fleet management market in Australia and New Zealand. The top-15 players in the region together account for over 60 percent of the active units on the market, and more than a third is represented by the top-5 alone.

A wide variety of players serve the fleet telematics market in Australia and New Zealand, ranging from small local vendors to leading international solution providers.

“Berg Insight ranks Teletrac Navman, EROAD and MTData as the largest providers of fleet management solutions in Australia and New Zealand”, said Rickard Andersson, Principal Analyst, Berg Insight.

US-based Teletrac Navman (part of Vontier) was the first to reach 100,000 units in the region and this milestone has now also been achieved by New Zealand-based EROAD (including Coretex acquired in 2021) and Australia-based MTData (owned by Telstra).

“The remaining top-5 solution providers in the region are US-based Verizon Connect and Netstar Australia”, continued Mr. Andersson.

He adds that US-based Rand McNally which acquired Fleetsu in Australia in 2022 is now also a significant player. Other notable vendors with comparably sizeable subscriber bases in the region include local solution providers such as Australia-based IntelliTrac and Linxio and New Zealand-based Smartrak (Constellation Software), as well as international players including Canada-based Geotab and South Africa-based MiX Telematics. Fleet Complete, also based in Canada, entered the region through the acquisition of Geotab’s reseller Securatrak.

“Additional top-15 players in the region are Digital Matter and Procon Telematics as well as Bridgestone Mobility Solutions’ Webfleet and Fleetdynamics by Fleetcare”, said Mr. Andersson.

Solution vendors just outside of Berg Insight’s top list moreover include Directed Technologies (Directed Electronics Australia), Sensium, Inseego, TrackIt and Microlise. Directed notably works with a large number of commercial vehicle OEMs on the local market.

“OEMs which have launched fleet telematics solutions in the region independently or through partnerships include UD Trucks, Toyota, Hino, Mitsubishi, PACCAR, Volvo Group, Daimler Truck, Fuso, Scania, MAN and Iveco”, concluded Mr. Andersson.

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The global installed base of active remote tank monitoring (RTM) solutions reached 7.7 million units at the end of 2022, according to a new research report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight.

Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25.0 percent, the active installed base is estimated to reach 23.5 million units worldwide in 2027. Berg Insight estimates that the European market accounted for more than 1.8 million active RTM systems at the end of 2022. The North American market is estimated to be larger than the European at around 3.2 million active units. The Asia-Pacific market is moreover estimated to represent an installed base of about 1.7 million RTM systems at the end of 2022. South America and Middle East & Africa are smaller markets having installed bases of 385,000 units and 539,000 units respectively.

There are more than 100 RTM solution vendors active on the market worldwide and this report covers 63 companies. Berg Insight ranks Otodata once again as the leading RTM solution provider in terms of the active installed base worldwide with an installed base of about 2.0 million RTM units. Otodata is based in Canada and primarily focuses on the fuel reseller segment in North America. Otodata has so far acquired 3 companies to boost its growth plans: Wise Telemetry in April 2021, Wireless Applications Corporation (WACnGO) in December 2021 and AIUT’s LPG branch in June 2022. Anova and SkyBitz (Ametek) were in second and third place having achieved installed bases of about 1.0 million units and 210,000 units respectively. Anova has done a string of acquisitions including Independent Technologies, Wikon, ISA – Intelligent Sensing Anywhere, iTank (Sierra Wireless) and Silicon Controls to become the second largest RTM solution vendor with more than 2,000 customers in 80 countries. SkyBitz is based in the US and most of its tanks under management can be found in North America and a few in Mexico and other countries. Tank Utility based in the US and German FoxInsights followed in fourth and fifth place and had installed bases of 130,000 and 125,000 tank monitoring systems respectively. Sensile Technologies, Dunraven Systems, Angus Energy, Kingspan and PowTechnology are also ranked among the largest providers with 70,000–100,000 units each.

Other RTM solution providers with installed bases of 22,000–50,000 RTM systems in active use at the end of 2022 include ATEK Access Technologies, Varec, Banner Engineering, FreeWave, GreenCityZen, Gasbot, Insite Platform Partners, SilentSoft, Tecson and Schmitt Industries.

Merger and acquisition activity on this market is just about to commence at the same time as new innovative companies enter the market. Anova and Otodata have been the most ambitious consolidators on the market so far with 5 and 3 acquisitions respectively.

Johan Fagerberg, Principal Analyst, Berg Insight, said:

“Additional companies have recently started to look at in-organic grow opportunities more actively including for instance Rochester Sensors that acquired Tekelek in Q2-2023 and Four Data that picked up the European business unit (excluding Switzerland) of Silentsoft in the same quarter”

Mr. Fagerberg anticipates that the market consolidation of the remote tank monitoring industry will accelerate in the next five years.

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The number of active fleet management systems deployed in commercial vehicle fleets in Europe was 14.8 million at the end of 2022, according to a new research report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight.

Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.4 percent, this number is expected to reach 26.5 million by 2027. The top-38 vendors have today more than 100,000 active units in Europe.

Berg Insight ranks Targa Telematics as the largest player in terms of active installed base with around 710,000 units at year-end 2022. Weebfleet’s subscriber base has grown both organically and by acquisitions during the past years and the company holds the position as the second largest provider of fleet management solutions on the European market and reached an installed base of about 680,000 units. Verizon Connect is in third place and had achieved an installed base of an estimated 490,000 units at the year-end. Calamp and Radius Telematics follow and have reached 400,000 units and 382,000 units respectively. Scania, ABAX, Gurtam, Bornemann and AddSecure Smart Transport are also ranked among the ten largest providers with 250,000–380,000 units each. Some notable players just outside of the top ten list are MICHELIN Connected Fleet, Geotab, Transics, Quartix, Eurowag Telematics, Viasat, Linqo, Microlise, Daimler Truck, Océan (Orange), Volvo, Macnil, GSGroup, RAM Tracking, MAN, Cartrack, Fleet Complete, Trimble, Optimum Automotive, Shiftmove, AROBS Transilvania Software, Inseego, Infobric Fleet and Mapon. The HCV manufacturers are now growing their subscriber bases considerably thanks to standard line fitment of fleet management solutions. Dynafleet by Volvo, FleetBoard by Daimler Truck and Scania Fleet Management are the most successful with active subscriber bases of 162,000 units, 170,000 units and 379,000 units in Europe respectively at the end of 2022.

The consolidation trend on this market continued in 2023.

Johan Fagerberg, Principal Analyst, said:

“Seven mergers and acquisitions have taken place so far this year among the vendors of fleet management systems in Europe”

In January, Coyote became majority owner of Ubiwan (51 percent). After the change in ownership, the fleet management business of Coyote has now become part of the Ubiwan business. In the same month, Vimcar and Avrios were acquired by Battery Ventures and consequently merged, resulting in a new company called Shiftmove. In February, private equity firm Idico acquired a majority stake in Simpliciti. In May, Targa Telematics acquired Viasat Group. The new larger group will have offices in eight key European countries: Italy, Portugal, Spain, France, the UK, Belgium, Poland and Romania. Mapon acquired CarCops based in Estonia in the same month which will expand the business in the country considerably. Addsecure Smart Transport acquired in October the Clifford Group which includes Traxgo, a Belgium-based company offering systems for tracking of vehicles, machines and equipment. Finally, Powerfleet and MiX Telematics announced in October an agreement to form a combined business which will be branded as Powerfleet. The transaction is expected to close in Q1-2024. Mr. Fagerberg anticipates that the market consolidation of the still overcrowded industry will continue in 2024.

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Berg Insight, the leading IoT market research provider, has in a new market research project found that the global installed base of active construction equipment (CE) OEM telematics systems reached 6.2 million units in 2022.

Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.0 percent, the active installed base is forecasted to reach 11.0 million units worldwide in 2027. This includes all CE telematics systems marketed by construction equipment OEMs, either developed in-house or provided by the CE manufacturers in partnership with third-party telematics players.

The European market accounted for around 0.9 million active construction equipment OEM telematics systems at the end of 2022. The North American market is estimated to be somewhat larger than the European. The Rest of World moreover represents more than half of the global installed base of CE telematics systems provided by construction equipment OEMs.

“Most major construction equipment OEMs have introduced telematics offerings for their customers either independently or in collaboration with telematics partners”, said Rickard Andersson, Principal Analyst, Berg Insight.

OEM telematics systems are today commonly factory-installed as standard at least for heavier machines and increasingly also for compact equipment.

“Berg Insight ranks Caterpillar as the clear leader in terms of the number of construction equipment OEM telematics systems deployed worldwide”, continued Mr. Andersson.

He adds that Caterpillar – which is also by far the leading construction equipment manufacturer by market share – has well over 1 million connected assets in the construction equipment segment specifically. Based in the US, Caterpillar’s largest markets for its telematics offerings are North America and Europe.

The runners-up are SANY and Komatsu based in China and Japan respectively, both major players on the respective domestic markets. Komatsu also has relatively large shares of its telematics units in China, North America and Europe.

“Other major players with several hundred thousand active CE telematics units include Sweden-based Volvo Construction Equipment, XCMG in China, JCB headquartered in the UK and Japan-based Hitachi Construction Machinery”, said Mr. Andersson. Deere & Company, HD Hyundai and Doosan Bobcat are also estimated to have reached the milestone of 100,000 units.

“Additional players having installed bases of construction equipment telematics units in the tens of thousands include Liebherr, Terex, JLG Industries, CNH Industrial and Tadano”, concluded Mr. Andersson.

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According to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, the market value for lone worker protection solutions and services in Europe and North America reached € 120 million and € 75 million respectively in 2022.

In Europe and North America, the market value is anticipated to grow to € 150 million and € 105 million respectively by 2027.

Berg Insight estimates that the user base of lone worker safety solutions in Europe and North America was 1.5 million at the end of 2022. In Europe, the number of users is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 7.4 percent from 985,000 at the end of 2022 to reach over 1.4 million at the end of 2027. The North American market is anticipated to grow by a CAGR of 13.1 percent, from 505,000 users at the end of 2022 to 935,000 users at the end of 2027.

The lone worker safety solutions market in Europe and North America is served by various companies offering hardware devices, software solutions and alarm monitoring and response services. The majority of the solution providers on the market today focus on software services and only a few companies also develop dedicated lone worker devices and operate their own Alarm Receiving Centre.

The UK market is the largest and most mature lone worker market in Europe and North America, followed by the Canadian market. Legislation specifically addressing the safety of lone workers has fostered growth in these two countries. Many of the largest vendors of lone worker protection devices and services also originate from these regions. Leading players in the UK include PeopleSafe, Totalmobile, StaySafe, PanicGuard, Orbis Protect, SoloProtect, Reliance High-Tech, Vismo, Vatix and Oysta Technology.

Leading vendors in Canada are Tsunami Solutions, Blackline Safety and Aware360. Additional vendors in Europe and North America include Beepiz, Uepaa, AddSecure, Adresys, Becklar, Secure2Go, Crystal Alarm, Cuebly, First2HelpYou, LONEALERT, Pick Protection, AlertGPS, Becklar, Track24, Neovigie, OnGuard, Intellinium, Safepoint, Vecima Networks, Traxxs, Terracom and My Angel.

A number of companies focus on developing lone worker protection devices that can be used by solution providers, including ACR Electronics, Amigo Alarm, Garmin, Globalstar, MAGNETA, SAVV, Scandinavian Radio Technology, Teltonika, Twig Com and ZOLEO.

“The lone worker safety solution market in Europe and North America continues to grow as more companies and organisations understand the value these solutions bring”, says Martin Backman, Principal Analyst at Berg Insight.

The main drivers for adoption are new lone worker safety regulations, higher employee insurance costs, greater awareness of the risks that lone workers face, as well as a better understanding of efficiency benefits associated with lone worker protection services.

Mr. Backman continues:

“The transition to app-based solutions continues in both Europe and North America as the cost of implementation is significantly lower compared to dedicated lone worker devices”

In the past few years, a number of new satellite communicator devices that can be paired with smartphones have been launched. These make it possible for workers to use the lone worker app also outside of cellular network coverage.

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According to a new research report by IoT analyst firm Berg Insight, the number of users of carsharing services worldwide is forecasted to grow from 123.4 million people in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.9 percent to reach 269.4 million people in 2027.

Berg Insight forecasts that the number of vehicles used for carsharing services will grow at a CAGR of 11.2 percent from 575,000 at the end of 2022 to 979,000 at the end of 2027. The carsharing fleet grew 8.7 percent worldwide in 2022 and membership grew an impressive 43.8 percent worldwide.

“The number of people using carsharing services has increased rapidly in recent years, especially in Europe and Asia-Pacific”, said Martin Cederqvist, IoT analyst at Berg Insight.

Other markets that show promising signs are the South American and Middle Eastern markets. North America has struggled in recent years, but partly recovered in 2022, when the total fleet size and membership increased by 7.9 percent and 9.1 percent respectively.

CarSharing Organisations (CSOs) offer members access to a fleet of shared cars 24/7 from unattended self-service locations. Usage is billed by the minute/hour and by distance driven, with rates that include fuel, insurance and maintenance.

Today, most CSOs use station-based networks with roundtrip rental. This operational model requires members to return a vehicle to the same designated station from which it was accessed.

Another model that is rapidly gaining in popularity is free floating carsharing, which enables members to pick up and drop off cars anywhere within a designated area.

In recent years, a number of CSOs have also experimented with hybrid models of roundtrip rentals and free floating carsharing.

Mr. Cederqvist, said:

“Free floating carsharing has become increasingly popular and is expected to become the most common operational model in Europe in the coming years in terms of both membership and fleet size.”

A connected fleet and specialized software platforms are today necessary to run a carsharing business covering operational activities ranging from management of in-vehicle equipment, fleet management, booking management, billing, as well as operations supervision via dashboards and data analytics.

While some CSOs are using in-house developed hardware and software solutions for their operations, the majority sources these kinds of products and services from specialised technology vendors. Some of the vendors offer an end-to-end solution including both telematics equipment and software platforms while other vendors focus on one of the areas.

Leading vendors of hardware and software platforms include Invers, Convadis, Continental, Humax, Vulog, Ridecell, Optimum Automotive Group, Mobility Tech Green, OCTO Telematics, Targa Telematics and Glide.io.

Carsharing services are offered by specialist carsharing companies, car rental companies, carmakers, as well as public transport operators. Examples of leading CSOs backed by carmakers include Free2Move (owned by Stellantis), Volvo On Demand (owned by Volvo Cars), Zity (partly owned by Renault), Wible (owned by Kia) and Kinto Share (owned by Toyota).

“In recent years, a few carmakers have exited the carsharing market. BMW and Mercedes-Benz left the market when they sold their joint venture Share Now to Stellantis in 2022. Similarly, Volkswagen left the market in November 2022 as the carsharing service WeShare was acquired by the German CSO Miles. Stellantis now runs the leading carsharing operator in the car OEM segment Free2Move where Share Now is now incorporated”, said Mr. Cederqvist.

Sixt Share (owned by Sixt), Zipcar (owned by Avis Budget Group) and e-GO! Drivalia (owned by Leasys) are examples of carsharing companies owned by car rental and leasing players. Specialist CSOs include Times Car Plus (owned by the Japanese parking lot operator Park 24), Socar in South Korea, EvCard and Liandong Cloud in China, Enjoy (owned by the Italian energy company Eni), Mobility Carsharing in Switzerland, Miles, Stadtmobil and Cambio in Germany, Citiz in France, Communauto in Canada and GoGet in Australia.

“The top 30 carsharing service providers accounted for about 80 percent of the carsharing members and managed close to 64 percent of the carsharing fleet worldwide at the end of 2022”, concluded Mr. Cederqvist.

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According to a new research report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight, the installed base of smart street lights amounted to 23.0 million globally at the end of 2022.

Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.7 percent, the installed base will reach 63.8 million by the end of 2027.

Europe leads the adoption of smart street lighting technology and accounted for as much as 35 percent of the global installed base in 2022. North America is catching up with Europe and is growing robustly, accounting for around 37 percent of global shipment volumes in 2022. China was at the same time home to almost half of the installed base of smart street lights outside Europe and North America.

The world’s leading smart street lighting vendor was as of Q3-2023 Signify which with nearly 4.9 million connected street lights accounted for 18 percent of the global installed base. The company climbed to pole position after acquiring the former market leader Telensa in July 2021. Included in the top three were also US-based Itron and the Chinese Fonda Technology, of which the latter has most of its lighting controllers deployed in the domestic market. In total, the top three vendors accounted for almost a third of the global installed base of individually controlled smart street lights. Itron furthermore also constitutes a global leader in the networking segment.

Major smart street lighting players also include Quantela, Dimonoff, Ubicquia and LED Roadway Lighting from North America; Schréder from Belgium; Rongwen Energy Technology Group from China; Revetec and Umpi from Italy; Flashnet (Lucy Group) from Romania; Lucy Zodion (Lucy Group) and SSE from the UK; and ST Engineering Telematics Wireless from Singapore/Israel.

“The smart street lighting market experienced significant growth in 2022 and the first quarters of 2023, after a slowdown during 2021 following supply chain constraints and delays in the issuance of tenders for new projects in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic”, said William Ankreus, IoT analyst, Berg Insight.

Cities and municipalities have become increasingly aware of energy costs and environmental issues related to street lighting which has been a catalyst for growth in the smart street lighting market. While proprietary RF networking platforms have been the dominant connectivity type for smart street lighting deployments, the market is now clearly trending towards increased use of cellular communications in several parts of the world.

Mr. Ankreus continued:

“The simplicity and plug-and-play nature of cellular connectivity have made it an increasingly popular alternative for smart street lighting deployments and is expected to be the fastest growing connectivity technology”

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According to new a research report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight, the installed base of water utility AMI endpoints in Europe and North America is set to more than double during the period 2022–2028.

At the end of 2022, the combined installed base of AMI endpoints in Europe and North America amounted to 55.8 million units. This number is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.0 percent to reach 116.4 million in 2028. The total number of communicating utility water meters – including both AMI and AMR – will at the same time grow from 155.1 million units in 2022 to 206.0 million units in 2028.

AMR includes metering points that require readings through drive-by or walk-by operations while AMI involves a fixed network communications infrastructure and supports true IoT connectivity.

“Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the growth of remote water meter reading technologies has been impeded by supply-chain disruptions, resulting in the postponement of several projects. With ongoing improvements in supply-chains coupled with significant commitment from numerous utilities to implement smart metering technologies, the outlook for the overall smart water metering market looks promising”, said Mattias Carlsson, IoT Analyst Berg Insight.

In terms of AMI connectivity, LoRaWAN and 3GPP-based LPWA technologies such as NB-IoT and LTE-M continue to be the fastest growing technology types for new water AMI deployments in Europe and North America.

In Europe, Spain has emerged as the leading European adopter of 3GPP-based LPWA communications for water AMI with several major utilities in the country now launching large-scale rollouts based on NB-IoT. The interest in 3GPP-based LPWA is also particularly strong in markets such as the UK, Italy and the Baltics while demand for LoRaWAN has so far been more widespread across the entire European region.

In North America, LTE-M currently constitutes the single fastest growing technology for new water AMI deployments while LoRaWAN has just started showing some growth after several years in the market.

“Proprietary and EN 13757-based RF communications technologies currently have a strong footprint in both the European and North American markets. These technologies are anticipated to remain pivotal connectivity options for water AMI projects in the foreseeable future. Nevertheless, emerging alternatives such as LoRaWAN and cellular communications are rapidly growing and are poised to capture a larger share of AMI shipments in the years ahead”, continued Mr. Carlsson.

At the end of 2022, the companies that had accumulated the largest installed bases of water AMI endpoints in Europe included Diehl Metering, Itron, Birdz (Veolia), Sensus (Xylem) and Kamstrup. The top five in North America were Sensus, Badger Meter, Itron, Aclara (Hubbell) and Neptune Technology Group. Top 10 vendors in either of the two regions moreover included the Minol-ZENNER Group, Honeywell, the Arad Group, Mueller Systems, Landis+Gyr, Apator and Maddalena. The SUEZ subsidiary SUEZ Smart Solutions also constitutes a key player in the European water AMI market by having been instrumental to the development and deployment of Wize technology.

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Berg Insight, the world’s leading IoT market research provider, today released new findings about the market for cellular routers and gateways.

More than 5.6 million cellular routers and gateways were shipped globally during 2022, at a total market value of approximately US$ 1.4 billion. Annual sales grew at fast rate than shipments at a rate of 19 percent, reflecting strong customer demand in a constrained supply environment.

Several vendors reported that customers have built inventories during the last year to mitigate disruptions and delayed deliveries, which has resulted in a slowdown in sales growth in 2023. Even though long-term trends remain intact, cellular router vendors again face a more difficult operating environment in the short-term due to uncertain economic conditions. Until 2027, annual revenues from the sales of cellular routers and gateways are forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12 percent to reach US$ 2.5 billion at the end of the forecast period.

Cellular routers and gateways provide primary or failover cellular connectivity to devices in a local network. The product category has evolved over the past decades from simple networking devices to aggregation points for devices, implementing advanced functionality for security and edge computing. The market is driven by the growing need to connect assets and workforces in remote and temporary locations as enterprises digitalise their operations.

Ericsson-owned Cradlepoint is the clear leader in the space and differentiates itself by selling its routers combined with software and services exclusively through a subscription model. Sierra Wireless, part of Semtech since early 2023, is the runner up and achieved strong sales growth during the year. Other vendors that hold significant market shares are Teltonika Networks, Cisco and Digi International. These five vendors generated US$ 808 million in combined annual revenues from the sales of cellular routers and gateways and hold a market share of 56 percent.

Other important vendors include BEC Technologies, Belden, Casa Systems, Lantronix, MultiTech and Systech in North America; Advantech, Four-Faith, Hongdian, InHand Networks, Peplink and Robustel in Asia-Pacific; and Eurotech, HMS Networks, RAD and Westermo in the EMEA region. The European and Asia Pacific markets are fragmented with a large number of small and medium sized players that generate annual revenues in the range of US$ 5–25 million.

5G routers and gateways now account for close to 10 percent of annual shipments, but a higher share of revenues due to the price premium to 4G LTE devices. While many distributed enterprises are already taking advantage of the fast deployment time and ease of use of cellular solutions, Berg Insight believes that the trend will accelerate in the 5G era. As the cost per GB decreases, 5G connectivity will become an increasingly attractive alternative to fixed broadband and over time reach a level in which the monthly fee is comparable to a fixed broadband subscription, thereby expanding the market for cellular routers, gateways and modems.

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According to a new report from the leading IoT market research provider Berg Insight, the number of active fleet management systems deployed in commercial vehicle fleets in North America was 15.3 million in Q4-2022.

Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.6 percent, this number is expected to reach 27.6 million by 2027.

In Latin America, the number of active fleet management systems is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.6 percent from 5.3 million in Q4-2022 to reach 9.6 million in 2027.

There are now more than 30 players with installed bases of over 100,000 active fleet management units in the Americas. At the end of 2022, the top-30 vendors together had nearly 15 million vehicles under management in the region and the top-10 alone represented 50 percent of the total installed base in the Americas.

Geotab, Verizon Connect and Samsara are the leading fleet telematics providers in the Americas in terms of the number of active fleet management subscribers in the region.

“Geotab is clearly in the lead with an installed base in the three million range, ahead of Verizon Connect in second place followed by Samsara”, said Rickard Andersson, Principal Analyst, Berg Insight.

The remaining top-5 players in the region are Solera Fleet Solutions and Trimble Transportation, both active in the industry for decades.

“Additional solution providers with more than half a million units include Lytx, CalAmp, Gurtam and Motive as well as Zonar Systems which is owned by Continental”, continued Mr. Andersson.

He adds that in addition to Continental, the world leading tire manufacturers Michelin and Bridgestone have also established strong positions in the fleet management space through acquisitions. The remaining top-15 players include MICHELIN Connected Fleet, Bridgestone Mobility Solutions, Fleet Complete, Powerfleet and GPS Insight (including Certified Tracking Solutions).

“Powerfleet has recently announced an agreement with MiX Telematics to form a combined business which will be branded as Powerfleet”, said Mr. Andersson.

Driven by growth strategies based on M&A activity and high-pace organic growth, Berg Insight anticipates a future scenario where the global fleet management market is dominated by a handful of providers with installed bases measured in the millions. The milestone of one million connected units worldwide has already been surpassed by more than ten solution providers. Five of the vendors have achieved two million units and two players have surpassed the three million mark.

“Geotab has this month even reached four million subscriptions globally”, concluded Mr. Andersson.

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Berg Insight today released new findings about the market for home and small business security systems.

The number of professionally monitored alarm systems in Europe is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.4 percent, from 18.2 million in 2022 to reach 22.6 million in 2027.

In North America, the number of monitored alarm systems is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 3.4 percent, from 34.8 million in 2022 to 41.2 million in 2027.

Security systems for small businesses and private homes can be divided into three main categories – local, self-monitored and professionally monitored security systems. When activated, a local security system emits an alarm sound to alert the surroundings and scare off intruders. Such systems are not monitored and cannot be accessed from remote. A self-monitored security system is connected and informs the owner of the premises upon activation by sending a text message, email or push notification through a smartphone app. A professionally monitored security system is connected to an Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC). When the system is activated, the ARC can dispatch a security patrol and contact emergency services.

The traditional home and small business security systems market in Europe and North America is served by specialist home security companies such as ADT, Verisure, Vivint, Brinks Home (Monitronics) and Sector Alarm; security service companies such as Prosegur, Securitas and G4S; telecommunications and cable television companies such as Comcast, Telus, Cox Communications, and Altice France; as well as utilities, banks and insurance companies such as EPS (Crédit Mutuel), Crédit Agricole and Groupama.

Traditional home security systems include professional alarm monitoring. Providers of DIY home security systems include, among others, SimpliSafe, Frontpoint, Ring (Amazon), Yale (Assa Abloy), Arlo, Somfy, Scout Security, Canary, Signify, Netatmo, Minut and Wyze Labs. DIY security systems typically include self-monitoring as a standard feature and professional alarm monitoring services are offered as an option. ADT and Verisure are the two largest providers of professionally monitored alarm systems for homes and small businesses, with 6.4 million and 4.8 million customers respectively at the end of 2022. ADT is only active in the US while Verisure is active in 13 European countries and four countries in South America.

“An increasing number of home and small business owners in Europe and North America discover the value of interactive security systems and professional monitoring services to safeguard their premises”, says Martin Backman, Principal Analyst at Berg Insight.

Additional security products and services, such as water leak detection, fire and carbon monoxide detection and remote live video monitoring are now more commonly included in the offering from service providers to provide further peace-of-mind for customers.

Mr. Backman concludes:

“Security and safety are basic human needs and therefore the home and small business security system market is anticipated to stay strong in the coming years despite high inflation and rising costs of living and doing business.”

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Berg Insight, the world’s leading IoT market research provider, today released a new market report covering the trailer and cargo container tracking market.

The number of active tracking devices deployed for cargo carrying units (i.e. trailers, intermodal containers, rail freight wagons, air freight ULDs and pallets) reached 8.8 million worldwide in 2022. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.2 percent, this number is expected to reach 20.3 million by 2027.

In terms of installed units, trailer telematics is today the most developed market, followed by tracking devices for intermodal containers. The number of tracking devices and real-time data loggers in use for general cargo applications will grow from 2.0 million units at the end of 2022 to 6.6 million units at the end of 2027. The figure is an estimate on the average number of such devices that where in active use at any given time at the end of the year. This segment includes both disposable and multi-use devices.

The total market value for all these segments reached an estimated € 1.8 billion in 2022. Growing at a CAGR of 13.1 percent, the total market size is forecasted to reach € 3.4 billion in 2027.

Berg Insight ranks ORBCOMM as the largest provider of tracking solutions for cargo carrying units, having a significant installed base of both trailers and containers. The company’s total installed base reached more than 940,000 units at the end of 2022. The second largest player SkyBitz had an installed base of 725,000 tracking units, primarily on trailers. Additional leading providers of trailer telematics solutions are Spireon (now owned by Solera), Samsara, CalAmp, Motive, Idem Telematics, Powerfleet, Phillips Connect (the telematics division of Phillips Industries), Schmitz Cargobull, TGI, Transics (ZF), BlackBerry, TGI, EROAD, Krone and Cooltrax.

The container tracking market is led by Maersk, which has equipped its entire fleet of 380,000 reefer containers with tracking devices. Other major players in the segment are ORBCOMM, Envotech, ZillionSource, Globe Tracker, Traxens and MECOMO. Major telematics players in the rail industry are Nexxiot, Amsted Rail, DOT Telematik, Siemens, SAVVY Telematic Systems, Cognid Telematik, Cargomon Systems and Intermodal Telematics. Nexxiot is the leading player in the segment, working on large-scale projects in Europe. Sensitech (part of Carrier), DeltaTrak, Tive, Roambee, Controlant, Frigga (Dewav Electronic Technology), Copeland and OnAsset Intelligence are the leading providers of cargo tracking devices. These players offer tracking devices that can be used on all modes of transport, including air freight.

“The transport industry continues to adopt new digital solutions that increase transparency, efficiency and security within the supply chain”, says Martin Backman, Principal Analyst at Berg Insight.

Solutions that provide real-time data on the location and condition of the cargo and the cargo carrying unit are an important part of the digital transformation in the industry. Within the intermodal container shipping and the rail freight industries several major players have started or already completed projects to equip their entire fleet of containers or rail wagons with tracking technology.

“Major IoT projects initiated by companies such as Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd, VTG and DB Cargo have had a significant impact, pushing the tracking solutions market forward”, continues Mr. Backman. Devices used for cargo tracking continue to decrease in cost and size, enabling additional use cases.

Mr. Backman concludes:

“Bolstered by new IoT communications technologies, smart labels and other small form factor devices are quickly emerging and becoming a high-volume sub-segment of the tracking solutions market”

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Berg Insight, the world’s leading IoT market research provider, today released new findings about the vehicle telematics hardware market.

More than 47.2 million aftermarket telematics devices were sold worldwide during 2022, corresponding to a market value of € 2.4 billion. The performance of the market was still affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the following supply chain crisis, but the market has shown recovering signs in 2023. Until 2027, annual shipments of aftermarket telematics devices are forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.5 percent to reach 77.6 million at the end of the forecast period.

Berg Insight estimates at the same time that global shipments of OEM telematics hardware for passenger cars, light trucks and commercial vehicles reached close to 58.4 million units in 2022 corresponding to a market value of € 8.4 billion.

A combination of commercial and regulatory drivers now encourages a broader set of carmakers to expand availability of connected car services across geographies and market segments.

There are also numerous OEM telematics offerings from commercial vehicle manufacturers. The attach rate of embedded telematics devices among passenger cars, light trucks and commercial vehicles is forecasted to increase from about 72 percent in 2022 to 93 percent in 2027.

Martin Cederqvist, IoT Analyst at Berg Insight, said:

“Berg Insight ranks Teltonika as the market leader in the aftermarket telematics hardware segment reaching telematics hardware sales of € 139 million.”

Other vendors that hold significant market shares are CalAmp, Queclink, Jimi (Concox) and ERM Advanced Telematics. These five vendors generated together approximately € 483 million in annual revenues from the sales of aftermarket telematics devices. CalAmp has transformed from a pure hardware provider to an end-to-end solution telematics provider. The company is however still a major supplier of hardware telematics and shipped 1.5 million units during 2022, corresponding to sales of € 105 million.

“Other significant aftermarket telematics hardware vendors include Sensata Insights, Positioning Universal and Danlaw from North America; Suntech International, Gosuncn RichLink, Neoway Technology, Gosafe, Kingwo, ATrack and iTriangle from Asia-Pacific; and the European vendors Meta System, Ruptela and Munic”, continued Mr. Cederqvist.

The design and development of OEM telematics systems is complex as these have to integrate with vehicle systems, fulfil strict quality standards and ensure performance during the long lifecycle of a vehicle model. The suppliers of OEM telematics equipment are generally established automotive suppliers that develop their solutions in cooperation with car manufacturers.

“Shipments of OEM telematics hardware for passenger cars and light trucks amounted to about 50.3 million in 2022, representing more than 86 percent of the total OEM telematics hardware shipments.”, said Mr. Cederqvist.

The leading OEM telematics hardware vendors in terms of unit shipments are therefore found in the passenger car and light truck segment. Examples of leading automotive suppliers of OEM telematics hardware include LG Electronics, Continental, Harman Marelli, Denso, Valeo, Actia, Lear, Bosch, Hyundai Mobis, Visteon and Aptiv.

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Berg Insight, the world’s leading IoT market research provider, today released a new market report covering the cold chain tracking market.

Shipments of remote tracking systems with cellular or satellite communications capabilities for refrigerated cargo carrying units including trailers, intermodal containers, rail freight wagons and air freight ULDs reached 725,000 units worldwide in 2022. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.8 percent, shipments are expected to reach 1.2 million units in 2027. During the same period, the installed base of active tracking devices used for refrigerated cargo carrying units is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 13.0 percent from 2.4 million units at the end of 2022 to 4.4 million units by 2027.

The number of active tracking devices and real-time data loggers in use for general cargo applications, including insulated cargo boxes and pallet shippers, reached 1.6 million units at the end of 2022.. The number of active devices is forecasted to reach 5.2 million units at the end of 2027. Yearly device shipments in this category will grow from 5.9 million units in 2022 to reach 22.5 million units in 2027.

The cold chain tracking and monitoring market is served by a wide range of players. ORBCOMM has a large installed base of connected vehicles and assets. The company is the number one player in the refrigerated trailer and container tracking segment with close to 0.5 million units installed. Maersk has rolled out a system for real-time tracking of its entire fleet of 380,000 refrigerated containers, making it the largest refrigerated container tracking project worldwide. The Denmark-based tracking specialist Globe Tracker is the third largest provider of tracking solutions for refrigerated containers. The company has equipped the major shipping company Hapag-Lloyd’s entire fleet of around 160,000 reefer containers with tracking units.

Additional leading players in the refrigerated intermodal container tracking segment include Envotech, Cooltrax and Copeland (formerly Emerson Climate Technologies). Leading refrigerated trailer tracking players moreover include Spireon, Schmitz Cargobull, CalAmp and Idem Telematics. Intermodal Telematics and SAVVY Telematics Systems are leading vendors of temperature-controlled tank container tracking solutions.

“The market for real-time tracking solutions for cold chain applications continues to grow as the demand for up-to-date and relevant logistics data increases”, says Martin Backman, Principal Analyst at Berg Insight. The data can provide benefits for several departments within an organization and be used not only to optimize logistics processes but also to improve customer service, settle claims faster and more. A single load of cargo transported in the cold chain can be worth millions of euros.

Mr. Backman continues:

“Real-time tracking is a very cost-effective way to prevent high-value cargo from being spoiled or damaged.”

As the cost for IoT devices and connectivity services continues to decrease it becomes financially viable to also track goods of lower value. “The addressable market for cold chain tracking solutions will expand substantially in the next years”, concludes Mr. Backman.

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According to a new research report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight, the installed base of medication compliance monitoring devices reached 4.4 million worldwide at the end of 2022.

Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.2 percent, the installed base will reach 8.2 million in 2023.

North America is the leading medication compliance monitoring market accounting for 63 percent of the market value in 2022. Government regulations significantly impact the market growth with the release of new CPT codes in the US, encouraging the adoption of connected health devices.

On a macro level, one of the main reasons for the high use of connected medication compliance monitoring solutions in North America is the high per-patient treatment costs in the US compared to other countries in the world.

Europe and the Rest of World accounted for around 24 percent and 13 percent of the market value respectively in 2022. The European region is gaining traction thanks to the introduction of digital health regulations in major economies such as Germany and France.

The definition of medication compliance monitoring includes products and services that assist the patients in adhering to a medication regimen. Medication compliance monitoring solutions include injected medication solutions, inhaled medication solutions, and pill bottles and dispensers. Medication compliance monitoring solutions incorporate connectivity, a companion smartphone application and algorithms to personalize patient care in real time.

Injected medication solutions is the largest segment of the market corresponding to 3.6 million connected devices. Injected medication solutions are offered in different forms such as insulin pumps, pens, autoinjectors, smart buttons, add-on sensors and pen caps. Notable vendors include top players by installed base such as Medtronic, Insulet and Tandem Diabetes. Additional key companies operating in this segment are Eli Lilly and Company, Merck Group, Noble International, Novo Nordisk, Phillips-Medisize and Roche.

The total installed base of inhaled medication solutions reached 181,000 devices worldwide in 2022. This market segment includes connected devices such as inhalers and smart inhaler sensors. The digital respiratory market is in an emerging state with multiple solution providers operating in this segment. Leading connected inhaled medication providers include Propeller Health, Adherium, Teva Pharmaceuticals and Aptar Group, as well as Amiko Digital Health, FindAir, Cognita Labs and NuvoAir.

The pill bottle and dispenser solution market reached an installed base of 640,000 units at the end of 2022. This segment includes pill boxes, automatic medication dispensers, pill bottles and smart blisters that assist in reminding, dispensing and recording the medication-taking behaviour of a patient. The pill bottle and dispenser solution segment is a fragmented market that is evolving quickly and includes both consumer-oriented technology companies and traditional healthcare incumbents such as MedReady, Evondos, Hero Health, Compliance Meds Technologies, AdhereTech, MedMinder and Spencer Health Solutions.

The global market for medication compliance management solutions is affected by several trends and developments that will have an impact on the competitive landscape during the forecast period. Changing demographics are driving the demand for home care, while technological developments and regulatory changes affect the competitive landscape for solution vendors. One major transition has been from traditional drug delivery to smart drug delivery, which has encouraged companies to adopt connected solutions.

Vatsala Raina, IoT Analyst, Berg Insight, says:

“AI technologies are finding its way into the medication compliance monitoring market and vendors are for instance working on solutions to enable early detection of acute exacerbation of respiratory diseases.”

At the same time, the industry is becoming more patient-centric which calls for integrated systems and improved interoperability of connected care solutions. New companies are entering the connected care market and connected medication management solutions are today at the center of attention for start-ups.

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According to a new research report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight, the number of insurance telematics policies in force on the European market reached 13.6 million in Q4-2022.

Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.9 percent, this number is expected to reach 20.7 million by 2027. In North America, the number of insurance telematics policies in force is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.7 percent from 16.8 million in Q4-2022 to reach 29.2 million in 2027.

The US, Italy, the UK and Canada are still the largest markets in terms of insurance telematics policies. In North America, the market is dominated by US-based Progressive, Allstate, Liberty Mutual, Nationwide and State Farm as well as Intact Financial Corporation and Desjardins in Canada. The Italian insurers UnipolSai and Generali together accounted for around 50 percent of the telematics-enabled policies in Europe. Insurers with a strong adoption in the UK moreover include Admiral Group and Direct Line.

The European insurance telematics market is largely dominated by aftermarket black boxes while mobile applications followed by self-install OBD devices represent the vast majority of the active policies in North America. Berg Insight expects continued increase in the uptake of smartphone-based solutions in all markets as well as an increase in the use of OEM telematics data in usage-based insurance programs.

The insurance telematics value chain spans multiple industries including a large ecosystem of companies extending far beyond the insurance industry players.

“Automotive OEMs like Ford, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, Tesla and Toyota have all launched solutions to enable usage based insurance for their customers”, said Caspar Jansson, IoT Analyst at Berg Insight.

Connected car applications put OEMs closer to the drivers and players such as LexisNexis Risk Solutions, Verisk and CCC Information Services partner with OEMs and normalise connected car data in telematics exchanges which enables insurers to utilise telematics data from a vast range of sources as long as the policyholders agree to share their driving data.

Aftermarket telematics still plays an important role in the market for usage-based insurance. Octo Telematics has a dominant market share with more than 5.7 million devices installed in insurance telematics programs. Other end-to-end solution providers such as Vodafone Automotive, Viasat Group, Targa Telematics, IMS and The Floow are also important players on the insurance telematics market.

“Smartphone-based insurance telematics solutions are becoming a more mature solution now and we can see many insurers that start to take advantage of the concept’s potential in claims handling and as a marketing tool for example”, continued Mr Jansson.

Cambridge Mobile Telematics is a leading player in the mobile-based segment of insurance telematics and powers more than 10 million insurance telematics policies, mainly in the US. Other notable vendors of smartphone-based insurance telematics solutions include Arity (subsidiary of Allstate), Dolphin Technologies, Radius Telematics, Sentiance, OSeven Telematics, Movingdots, DriveQuant, Sycada and Telematics Technologies.

Mr. Jansson concluded:

“The uptake of smartphone-based insurance telematics policies is motivated by the low cost for implementation and insurers can also increase their customer interaction and loyalty with well-thought-out marketing and gamification features.”

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With the inflation and slowdown in macro-economic growth, the Bluetooth device market is estimated to decrease by 6.3% on YoY to 8.07 billion units in 2022, as a result of the significant decrease in the market for host devices such as smartphones, PCs, TVs… and the saturation of Bluetooth audio application market.

Despite the weak consumer demand, BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) market has been growing in 2022 and 2023 thanks to the expansion in industrial automation, home/building/retail automation, healthcare, automotive and so on. Bluetooth has been expanding new application and use cases along with the introduction of new standards and features.

Bluetooth Device Market Forecast by Device Type

The Bluetooth device market is estimated to shrink slightly to 8.01 billion units in 2023 due to weak consumer demand and inventory correction. However, Bluetooth device market is estimated to rebound in 2024 after the inventory digestion, and improved consumer spending. Bluetooth market will grow by mid to low single digit after 2024, will surpass 10 billion units by 2028.

Dividing Bluetooth application into host type devices such as smartphones, PCs, and TVs, and peripheral/accessory type devices, the market for host-type devices has matured and will decline significantly in 2022-2023. The peripheral/accessory type devices market grows in 2023 onwards, driving the growth of the Bluetooth market. Peripherals and accessories are estimated to account for 65% of the total Bluetooth market in 2021, growing to just under 73% in 2028. Bluetooth adoption will expand in various devices such as HID (Human Interface Device), remote controller, proximity tag/ asset tracking, home/building/retail automation, smart lighting, automotive accessory, mobile accessory, healthcare, and so on.

Single Mode Bluetooth Low Energy Device Market Forecast

In 2021, the BLE chip market expanded strongly by 44% YoY to 1.57 billion units. 2021 growth was partly contributed by the inventory buildup in user companies and channel. Strong demand continued by the first half 2022, but the demand decline and inventory adjustment began in the second half of 2022. 2022 market growth is estimated to remain at 9.4% YoY. The consumer, PC and mobile application market remains weak, but industrial and automotive applications will grow. Overall market growth is estimated at 4% in 2023.

After 2024, in addition to the economic recovery and inventory normalization, BLE device market is expected to show strong momentum due to the expansion of new applications such as audio, automotive digital key and TPMS(Tire Pressure Monitoring System), commercial tag, smart lighting, access control (door lock), electric shelf label, smart metering, and EV charging pile. Some of the application market will grow along with the new features such as Periodic Advertisement with Response (for electric shelf label), Channel Sounding (secure access), LE audio/Auracast (for hearing aid and public speaker). Bluetooth adoption in Matter standard also support Bluetooth penetration in smart home market.

Though BLE has been used in broad range of IoT devices, the main volume application of BLE chip are as follows in descending order: 1.remote controller, 2.tag/beacon (proximity, asset tracking), 3.wearable (smart watch/ activity tracker), 4.HID (mouse/keyboard/digital pen), 5.home/building automation (lighting, door lock/access control, remote switch, sensor…), 6.healthcare device.

In 2022-2023, while the volume of BLE shipments for tag/beacon (proximity/tracking), home/building automation, home/building automation, healthcare, and automotive accessories will increase. BLE IC shipment for wearable decreases significantly as BLE has been replaced by Bluetooth Audio SoC, with the emerge of voice enabled smart watch market in India, China and other developing countries. Remote controllers and HIDs market volume remains flat in relation to the sluggish market for PCs, tablets, TVs, and set-top boxes.

Bluetooth Low Energy IC Market Share

There are over 50 BLE IC suppliers and market share is quite fragmented. However, Nordic Semiconductor keeps top spot since 2014. Nordic establishes leading position in BLE IC market by growing developer community with mature SDK, reference design, low power RF design and flexibility in memory.

In 2022, Nordic, Realtek, Telink, Renesas, and PHYPlus are recognized as top 5 supplier in shipment unit, followed by SiLabs (SiliconLabs), NXP, STMicroelectronics, Qorvo, Infineon, and TI (Texas Instruments). Nordic, PHYPlus and NXP gained the market share in 2022, while Telink, Renesas and Realtek dropped in market share.

The main supplier differs by end market and application. The table below shows the main BLE IC suppliers by application.

Major BLE SoC Supplier by Application

Chinese low cost BLE IC suppliers takes major share in activity tracker, remote controller, HID, mobile accessory, and PC accessory. On the other hand, Western IC suppliers are relatively strong in the tag/beacon (industrial/commercial asset tracking), healthcare, and automotive.

Energy Harvesting and Ambient IoT are attracting attention in the fields of tag/beacon, tracking and proximity. Energy Harvesting and ultra low power BLE IC suppliers are Atmosic, InPlay, OnSemi, WilioT, EM Microelectronics, and Renesas.

For automotive, NXP and TI are the popular BLE IC supplier. In addition, major automotive IC suppliers such as Infineon and Renesas aims to enter the automotive BLE IC market. Moreover, there is a demand for domestic Bluetooth IC suppliers in the Chinese market, and Beken, Senasic and others are developing Bluetooth ICs for automotive.

The post TSR Market Update: Bluetooth Low Energy Market appeared first on IoT Business News.

According to IoT Analytics, a leading global provider of market insights and strategic business intelligence for the Internet of Things (IoT), the industrial IoT gateways market accelerated significantly from 2021 to 2022, growing ~14.7% to reach $860 million (38% of the overall IoT gateways market).

KEY QUOTES:

Knud Lasse Lueth, CEO at IoT Analytics, comments that:
“Industrial IoT gateways are critical for connecting legacy systems with modern technology. They also play an important role to support the migration of manufacturing applications to the cloud. In the future I also expect a number of smaller applications to sit directly on IIoT gateways, leveraging containerization technology, more powerful storage and computation and in some cases even AI chips for ML inference.”

Kalpesh Baviskar, Analyst at IoT Analytics, added that:

“IoT gateways have emerged as a highly cost-effective solution for deploying IoT systems with multiple sensors. They play a crucial role in connecting legacy equipment and devices that were previously unconnected.”

“In recent years, we have seen the integration of high-performance processors and AI chipsets into IoT gateways, transforming them into edge IoT gateways. These edge gateways can perform local data processing and analytics, significantly reducing the amount of data that needs to be sent to the cloud. This can lead to significant cost savings and performance improvements for IoT applications.”

KEY INSIGHTS:

• According to the IoT Gateway Market Report 2023–2027, the $0.9B industrial IoT (IIoT) gateway market experienced accelerated growth between 2021 and 2022, which is set to continue on the back of several favorable tailwinds.
• IIoT gateways are enabling IT and OT convergence by securely and efficiently sharing data between floor-level OT equipment and IT equipment or the cloud—with implementation typically as part of one of four broader IoT architectures.
• There are several IIoT gateway advancements e.g., in security, edge computing, and storage.

The vital role of industrial IoT gateways in bridging IT and OT

IIoT gateways: Market and role

The industrial IoT gateways market accelerated significantly from 2021 to 2022, growing ~14.7% to reach $860 million (38% of the overall IoT gateways market), and we forecast continued growth at least through 2027. The factors driving this growth include the following:

• Connecting the unconnected. Many companies are retrofitting their legacy equipment with sensors and controllers, using IIoT gateways to perform necessary protocol and data transformation and transfer the data to an IT endpoint.
• Software applications are migrating. Companies with connected equipment are moving some key applications to the cloud, with IIoT gateways emerging as the main nexus point for information flow in and out of industrial premises. Some applications are also now run locally on the gateway itself.
• More powerful hardware. New, enhanced gateways with embedded multi-core processors, AI chipsets, and secure elements are enabling faster and more secure data processing and transmission (to an IT endpoint or cloud).

These factors reflect our assessment that IIoT gateways are becoming the juncture for IT and OT convergence.

Note: When we refer to IIoT gateways, we refer to (ruggedized) hardware that connects sensors, IIoT devices, and industrial equipment to cloud or on-premises servers or PLCs/IPCs operating on distinct industrial networks. For an exact definition, refer to our report.

How IIoT gateways connect the IT and OT worlds

Many companies maintain legacy equipment that does not have sensors or control devices. Even if the legacy equipment has sensors or controllers that connect locally, such as to a human-machine interface or panel PC on the factory floor, it may not offer connectivity options or use messaging protocols that end equipment (like an IT server or cloud) uses. Meanwhile, companies that possess IoT-enabled equipment may desire to move data off-premises (e.g., to remote IT equipment or the cloud) or enhance local data computation for automated responses before transmitting the data.

In cases like these, IIoT gateways can connect with standalone or integrated sensors—either wirelessly or wired through I/O module masters—to transmit data to IT or cloud servers. As described below, they fit within many architectures found in industrial IoT solutions.

IIoT gateways within IoT architectures

Whether a company builds or buys an IoT solution, the solution will align with an IoT architecture to collect and transmit data to the endpoint. While a direct sensor-to-cloud architecture does not require the use of an IIoT gateway, IIoT gateways are commonly found in 4 general types of IoT architectures.

1. Sensors/devices to PLC/IPC to IIoT gateway to cloud

In industrial environments with existing automation hardware, the sensors/devices to PLC/IPC to IIoT gateway to cloud architecture is very common. Field sensors or actuators are connected to I/O module masters. These I/O module masters transmit data to the on-premises PLC or IPC. The PLC/IPC is then connected to the IIoT gateway, which serves as a bridge between the PLC/IPC and the cloud.

This architecture can be very powerful but also potentially dangerous. The IIoT gateway can technically be configured to remotely access the entire architecture that sits below the PLC/IPC. While this setup enables any data to flow between IT and OT and thus any imaginable use case, it also has the biggest potential attack surface (potentially the entire facility), e.g., in case of a misconfigured security architecture.

2. Sensor to I/O modules to IoT gateways to cloud

In the sensor to I/O module master to IoT gateways to cloud architecture, simple sensors connect to I/O module masters. The I/O module master then uses wired or wireless connectivity standards to transfer data to IIoT gateways, bypassing any PLC or IPC. This architecture proves to be highly effective in scenarios where multiple sensors are arranged into clusters—the I/O module master acts as the central node for each cluster of sensors, efficiently gathering and transmitting data to the cloud via an IIoT gateway.

3. Sensors in devices to IoT gateway to cloud

In the sensors in devices to IoT gateway to cloud architecture, devices equipped with single or multiple onboard sensors are connected directly to the IIoT gateway. This architecture is often deployed where non-standalone IoT devices are used (i.e. devices that cannot connect to the internet by themselves).

4. Sensors to IoT gateway to cloud

In the sensors to IoT gateway to cloud architecture, IIoT gateways enable connections between sensors and cloud servers directly. This architecture can for example be found when retrofitting specific sensors on an asset (e.g., for condition monitoring) with the desire to bypass all other existing networks (to not interfere with them and create a new security risk).

Advancements in the capabilities of IIoT gateways

As IIoT gateways have become more common in IIoT solutions, they have become capable of offering more for their users. In general, IIoT gateways typically offer 8 key functions:

• Protocol translation
• Data management
• Device management
• Computation
• Communication
• Resource management
• Security management
• Managing quality of service

As the IIoT gateway market has grown, these functions have advanced. The following are just some examples of advancements.

“A growing number of customers [are] requiring proof of security level from manufacturers for their industrial IoT equipment.”

Security management

As the number of connected devices continues to increase, the risk of cyberattacks and unauthorized access becomes more significant. This is especially true for companies looking to connect factory equipment to external IT or cloud servers. Fortunately, to address these risks, IIoT gateway vendors are proactively incorporating security features into their products and adhering to industry-specific regulations and standards, allowing OT monitoring and control to reside securely behind layers of policies and access controls.

A notable series of standards is IEC 62443, approved in 2021, which directs all IEC 62443-certified products to adhere to specific product development requirements from the early stages of design. This set of standards has become mandatory technical requirements in many countries, and according to Pascal LeRay, Head of Cyber Security at Bureau Veritas, “a growing number of customers [are] requiring proof of security level from manufacturers for their industrial IoT equipment.”

In our research, IIoT gateway companies noted the importance of incorporating security standards in their products. Teltronic’s CEO, Juan Ferro, stated that “the sudden irruption of cybersecurity in the industry has been interpreted by Teltronic as an opportunity to improve both [our] products and associated processes,” adding that the pre-emptive adoption of security standards placed them ahead of other companies in their sector.

Along with standards, IIoT gateways are increasingly incorporating hardware security, using embedded secure elements either within processors or on the PCB/modules as trusted platform modules (e.g., TPM 2.0). Ultratronik’s A1 IoT gateway integrates NXP’s EdgeLock SE051 secure element, and Eurotech’s RELIAGATE 10-14 series maintain IEC 62443-4-1, -4-2, and PSA Level 1 certifications and have a TPM 2.0 security chipset—OPTIGA TPM SLM 9670 from Infineon Technologies.

“The milliseconds of latency [between] an industrial robot and many real-time systems can be the difference between a safety hazard and a productive assembly line.”

Computation

IoT gateways in general have trended toward more processing power. In industrial solutions, this has helped companies move data processing and computation toward the solution’s edge—nearer to the data collection point—saving them bandwidth and communications power and freeing their IT and cloud servers to manage other tasks. Additionally, there has been a trend of integrating AI chipsets into some IoT gateways to facilitate edge computing. A noteworthy example is AAEON’s AIOT-AVID IoT Video Analysis Gateway, which incorporates Intel’s Myriad X vision processing unit (VPU).

The ability to process and automate data in real time can mean much for a company’s bottom line, as one senior VP stated, “The milliseconds of latency [between] an industrial robot and many real-time systems can be the difference between a safety hazard and a productive assembly line.”

Data and resource management

Local data storage helps enable data processing at the edge. Further, some industrial use cases may call for data sorting and analysis before being transmitted to an IT or cloud server, either due to limited network connectivity or the desire for more efficient use of IT equipment.

The need for local data storage has led to eMMC flash memory and SSD solutions on IoT gateways in general. In mid-2022, Robustel launched three ARM-based IIoT gateways with varying DDR and eMMC sizes to meet application needs. A few months later, Compulab announced its IOT-GATE-RPI4, a Raspberry Pi-based IIoT gateway that offers up to 128 GB of eMMC memory and mPCIe slots for SSD storage expansion up to 256 GB. Other examples include MOXA’s AIG-301 series IIoT gateway with 16 GB of eMMC and Belden’s Hirschmann OpEdge-8D with 64 GB of SSD flash memory.

Device management

With integrated storage comes the ability to containerize applications for deployment on IoT gateways, including device management software. Traditionally, deploying applications on IoT gateways involved installing them directly on the equipment’s operating system, which had limitations in terms of scalability, flexibility, and ease of management. However, companies are increasingly using containerization as a deployment strategy for applications on IIoT gateways, offering platforms like Kubernetes and runtimes like Docker. These technologies provide a way to create lightweight and isolated runtime environments, known as containers, where applications can run consistently across various platforms and environments.

Many gateway OEMs are also building app stores with hundreds of ready-made applications that end users can deploy to their gateways (and in the cloud), such Bosch Rexroth’s ctrlX store, Siemens’s Industrial Edge Marketplace, and Advantech’s WISE-Marketplace.

Key Benefits of IIoT Gateways

In our analysis of 65 case studies, we identified numerous benefits of IIoT gateway implementations based on various use cases. The following are 3 of the main benefits companies cited.

1. Better IT/OT integration

Indeed, this is a key goal of implementing IIoT gateways, and our analysis shows that many companies have achieved this goal. A common goal of IT/OT integration is remote monitoring and response. As an example, Vitesco Technologies Italy used Zerynth’s 4ZeroBox, an on-premises IIoT system for real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance. This solution enabled Vitesco to predict pneumatic valve malfunctions 24 hours in advance, which reduced assembly downtime and increased productivity.

2. Reduced labor costs

IIoT gateways are often deployed for automation purposes and as such can reduce labor costs, human effort, and human errors. While Vitesco saw a 50% reduction in its manual labor requirement with its 4ZeroBox application, Colombian steel manufacturer Corpacero cut costs associated with repair labor after partnering with Senzary to deploy RotaryIQ and InsightsIQ solutions for predictive maintenance and remote machine management.

3. Energy savings

Enterprise energy management analytics software provider Wattics partnered with Kontron to use Kontron’s KBox A-101 as a central ‘edge node’ for Wattics Sentinel software at the customer’s site. It connects to the local energy grid and the Sentinel grid, facilitating meter configuration, reliable data collection, pre-processing, compression, and secure communication.

IoT gateway market outlook

With many companies seeking to either retrofit their equipment or enhance their IoT solutions, we have seen solid growth in the IIoT gateway market (8.1% CAGR) between 2018 and 2022, with acceleration specifically from 2021 to 2022. We assess that this trend will continue since use cases in manufacturing and certain applications continue to demand real-time processing, low latency, and secure data handling. Further, the following 5 trends, which are discussed in more depth in the IoT Gateway Market Report 2023–2027, support this assessment:

1. IoT gateways are becoming more modular, allowing IIoT gateway vendors to offer a range of options and configurations to meet customer needs and enable easy scalability.

2. IoT gateways are supporting more wireless connectivity options, such as secure cellular solutions with eSIM/iSIM technology, enabling IIoT gateways to handle multiple connected devices in an expanded perimeter of operations.

3. IIoT gateway vendors are collaborating to combine hardware and software solutions, simplifying deployments and reducing costs.

4. OT hardware is starting to consolidate (e.g., I/O module masters shifting to IIoT gateways)

5. Virtualization of workloads (e.g., virtual PLCs) allows IPCs and IIoT gateways to perform tasks that were previously tightly coupled to other pieces of hardware.

IIoT gateways play a pivotal role in bridging the gap between legacy machinery and modern systems, facilitating retrofits and brownfield installations. As industries strive for global connectivity and centralized management of OT devices, IIoT gateways will continue to play a major role in integrating operations across various locations.

What it means for IoT gateway vendors

5 key questions IoT gateway vendors should ask themselves based on the findings of the report:

1. Do our IIoT gateways remain compliant with updated security standards?

2. Do our customers require AI edge capabilities as a general offering?

3. Have we explored local data storage options to increase computation while decreasing latency?

4. Should we containerize our edge IIoT applications? And if so, how?

5. Are our general solutions enabling seamless IT/OT integration for customers? If not, should we focus on tailored solutions for our customers?

What it means for IoT adopters

5 key questions IoT adopters should ask themselves based on the findings of the report:

1. Have we assessed the various available IIoT gateways and their potential impact on our overall IoT strategy?

2. Which IoT architecture(s) are we using? Can an IIoT gateway offer improvements?

3. Do our current IIoT gateways meet current security standards? If not, what updates do we require to meet these standards?

4. Have we assessed the possible benefits of edge computing (e.g., automating controls locally based on the data)?

5. Should we leverage local data storage and containerized applications for better device management and updates?

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