The beleaguered smartphone maker Blackberry Ltd. (NASDAQ:BBRY) has decided to enter the lucrative machine-to-machine (M2M) wireless communications market. Management has undertaken “Project Ion” to help business enterprises to provide a seamless connection between people, devices and machines for greater value addition.
“Project Ion” will focus on developing a secure public application platform based-on the company’s proprietary QNX software and BlackBerry secure enterprise mobility management system. BlackBerry will also provide Internet-based technological designs, applications and services to enhance productivity and improve real-time decision making of large business enterprises.
The M2M wireless communication technology has been significantly driving mobile data revenues for wireless service providers. A typical mobile M2M messaging system establishes a wireless communication link between a group of devices and a computer server or another device for transmitting data contained within those devices.
The M2M market provides the opportunity to mobile-enabled millions of devices, like cars, utility meters, vending machines and consumer electronics devices to get connected to a wireless network.
Several industry researchers have estimated that the financial opportunity of the global M2M communications market may reach $45 billion to $53 billion between 2018 and 2020. Over the same time frame, the number of M2M module deployment is predicted to rise from 175 million to 470 million. Industry verticals like healthcare, manufacturing, energy and utilities will largely benefit from the progress.
Next-generation (4G) technology is also boosting the growth of the M2M segment as it provides exceptionally high Internet speeds. Massive throughput and low latency period of the LTE technology enable easy access for large-scale applications like fleet management, security, automotive, navigation, and video content.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., all four national telecom operators, namely, AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), Sprint Corp. (NYSE:S), Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) and T-Mobile US Inc. (NYSE:TMUS) are expanding their M2M operations.