Vodafone Group published its second annual ‘M2M Adoption Barometer’, a global survey of the machine-to-machine (M2M) market, which finds that companies in Asia Pacific were among the leaders in M2M adoption globally. In 2014, 27% of AMAP based companies on average have adopted M2M solutions – a 15 point increase over 2013. Average adoption rates were 21% in Europe and 17% in the Americas.

M2M, which connects previously isolated machines or devices to the internet to make the ‘Internet of Things’ possible, is now a mainstream solution as 22% of organisations on average globally have adopted M2M, an impressive increase of over 80% on last year; the survey findings suggest.

The survey, carried out by Circle Research, captured the views of more than 600 executives – 38% of whom were from the AMAP region - involved in setting M2M strategy in seven key industries across 14 countries, making it one of the leading global surveys of M2M implementation.

The 2014 survey predicts that the AMAP region will continue to lead the rest of the world over the next couple of years – with adoption expected to hit 48% on average across companies based in this region in 2015. This year’s report also suggests that by 2016 the gap will be negligible with all regions close to 55% average for adoption.

Globally three sectors have emerged as front runners in M2M with nearly 30 % adoption rates: automotive, consumer electronics, and energy and utilities. Vodafone’s report shows that the consumer electronics sector is at the forefront of a shift from the warehouse to the living room. Automotive is the most mature of the sectors where M2M is now seen as an enabler for additional services such as remote maintenance and infotainment. M2M adoption in energy and utilities is also growing rapidly as ‘smart’ home and office services such as intelligent heating and connected security gain popularity.

While more firms are seeing a return on investment from M2M than last year – 46% of respondents cited a ‘significant increase’ compared with 36% in 2013 – there are still some barriers to adoption, including managing security concerns and the challenges of global deployment.

“This year’s report findings leaves no doubt that momentum is accelerating as companies in Asia Pacific begin to realise the commercial potential of the Internet of Things. Machina Research expects M2M connections in Asia to grow at a CAGR of 20% till 2023*. This technology is transforming whole industries across Asia as companies find new ways to operate and engage with their customers. Greater China is expected to dominate Asian M2M revenues as per Machina Research; followed by Japan, India, Korea and Australia. Vodafone has invested in capabilities across Asia Pacific to become the provider of choice for M2M solutions”, said Niklas Ekarv, Director of Machine-to-Machine in Asia Pacific, Vodafone.

“We estimate that the market in Asia Pacific is expected to grow to over 9.4 billion connections by 2023 and is expected to be worth over US$679 billion in revenues – a 4x multiplier increase over 2013. Vodafone’s M2M Barometer report indicates just how fast M2M is being adopted. M2M technologies are being used more and more to drive efficiency and add new features, giving companies a competitive edge. It is also starting to facilitate new ways of working, fundamentally changing how organisations do business and how they serve their customers”, said Alex Chau, Principal Analyst at Machina Research.