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Internet-Connected Products Imperative for Future Business-Product Manufacturers: 2008 M2M Adopter Survey By Beecham Research

Posted on: Wednesday, 29 October 2008, 12:00 CDT

Connecting machines to the Internet (Machine-to-machine, or M2M) is now already well advanced across all major industry sectors with many businesses considering it "imperative" or "very important" for their future. This is according to a new survey of early adopters just published by Beecham Research Ltd., a leading research and consulting firm operating globally and focused exclusively on the rapidly-developing M2M market - "The Internet of Things".

During July through September 2008, Beecham Research conducted an international, sponsored survey of early adopters of Internet-connected products focused on product manufacturers and high level system integrators.

The survey assessed the importance of connecting respondents' products to the Internet for future business and how far they have progressed. Over 260 responses were received from companies in all sectors and all regions, illustrating the broad level of current activity in this area among early adopters.

A very high 82% of respondents viewed Internet connection (also referred to as network-enablement or M2M-enablement) for their products as being either "Very Important" or "Imperative" for their business in the future. Over 52% of respondents were already supporting and monitoring such products in the field. In addition, while last year nearly 50% of the respondent companies shipped less than 10% of their product shipments as Internet-capable, in three years' time this is expected to fall to 10% of these companies. On the other hand, while last year just over 46% of the companies shipped more than half of their products shipments as Internet-capable, in three years' time some 76% of these companies expect to do so.

"This projected rate of change indicates a strong intent by these companies to build up their shipment of Internet-connected products as rapidly as possible" said Robin Duke-Woolley, CEO of Beecham Research. "It shows that these companies have recognized the competitive advantage that connecting their products, machines and other assets to the Internet can bring to their businesses, as well as the benefits of getting to market quickly".

The report based on the survey concludes that early adopters of Internet-connected products have recognized the strategic implications of this for their businesses. They have typically already embarked on significant design programs to embed networking capability into their products and see both new revenue opportunities from services and strong competitive advantage in being early to market with these game-changing offerings.

It goes on to conclude that those companies who have not yet investigated and planned for the potential of network-enabling their products and the opportunities offered by remote device management are missing a major opportunity to expand their revenue base and profitability. At the same time, they are clearly risking their companies being placed at a significant competitive disadvantage in their own sector markets in the future.

This survey was sponsored by a group of technology suppliers who have had no influence on the content or conclusions of this work. All content in the report is entirely the work of Beecham Research and provides an independent snapshot of the state of adoption at the present time. As a result, this report is now available for free download from Beecham Research's website (file size 4.4MB). To download, click here or go to http://www.beechamresearch.com and click on "Free Report".

The sponsoring companies were: Anyware Technologies, KORE Telematics, Maingate, M2M Alliance, ORBCOMM, Sierra Wireless, Telefonica O2, Tridium, Wavecom and Wyless.

Beecham Research Limited is the leading consultancy and analyst research firm operating globally that focuses exclusively on M2M and the "Internet of Things". We take a holistic view of these markets and assess the service opportunities arising in all key business sectors using all current and possible future communication technologies, both fixed line and wireless. We are based in London UK and have offices in Boston MA, Bonn Germany and Milan Italy. For more information contact us at: info@beechamresearch.com.

 Contacts: Beecham Research Limited Email: info@beechamresearch.com Website: www.beechamresearch.com

SOURCE: Beecham Research Limited

Source: MARKET WIRE

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