Sierra Wireless was the top revenue earner from sales of M2M cellular embedded module vendors in 2011, according to ABI Research. Cinterion came second, and Telit third. The top three vendors by module unit shipment volume in 2011 were Cinterion, Telit, and Sierra Wireless.

ABI Research’s market share rankings of M2M cellular embedded module vendors for 2011 evaluates vendors’ market share performance for both total unit shipment volume of M2M cellular modules, as well as for total M2M revenue, including modules, terminals, software, and services.  



Cinterion has been the unit shipment volume market share leader since ABI Research started tracking cellular M2M module sales in 2003. With the acquisition of Cinterion by Gemalto in 2010, the company is hoping to leverage Gemalto’s resources and complementary offerings (i.e. SIMs) to build a more comprehensive and differentiated offer in the market.  



Sam Lucero, practice director, M2M connectivity, states, “The biggest change from 2010 to 2011 was the rise of Telit from third place to second place in the unit shipment volume analysis. Likewise, Telit Communications displaced SIMcom Wireless Solutions at third place in the M2M revenue rankings.”

ABI Research’s “M2M Embedded Module Vendor Market Share Market Data,” presents cellular M2M embedded module vendor market share data for 2011. 

It is part of ABI Research’s M2M Research Service. 

Sierra Wireless was one of the first vendors to push beyond modules to the supply of a software platform – its AirVantage hybrid connected device platform/application enablement platform (CDP/AEP).  Moving away from a pure module strategy has benefited Sierra Wireless financially in the face of increasing price pressure, as is the company’s strong focus on higher-value automotive module products.



Telit Communications has been the fastest growing of the major vendors for several years now, rising from roughly 6% market share in 2007 to more than 20% market share (on a unit shipment volume calculation) in 2011.

The main companies active in the cellular M2M module market include: Cinterion, Huawei, iWOW, Neoway, Novatel Wireless, Quectel, Sagemcom, Sierra Wireless, SIMcom Wireless Solutions, Telit Communications, u-blox, and ZTE. 



Telefonica and Avea have formed an M2M collaboration agreement that will see them jointly develop and offer services to provide M2M roaming across their markets. The partnership will cover the provision of global M2M solutions, international roaming agreements between the two operators, and the joint development of technological standards.

Both operators said they would like to see other partners join the partnership to spread coverage.

Turkcell has joined the likes of Deutsche Telekom and Telia Sonera by forming a machine to machine (M2M) "platform", uniting all the M2M solutions provided to its corporate customers under an M2M Umbrella. The operator said it currently has 750,000 Tukcells SIMs on the M2M platform, but added there are "potentially" 150 million devices that could be connected to its platform in Turkey.

If it did achieve that level of penetration, Turkcell claimed it would enable considerable benefits not just for itself, but for the Turkish economy as a whole. The operator said that its M2M solutions contributed TRY318 million to the Turkish economy through savings in 2011, an amount the operator plans to double 2012 through the depolyment of its M2M services on a platform basis.