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Internet of things management platform market breaks $1bn barrier in 2024
Study finds IoT connectivity management platforms facing headwinds, with suppliers exiting industry and others rethinking product and pricing strategies
Early internet of things (IoT) connectivity management platforms (CMPs) – a standard component in the value proposition from mobile operators and IoT mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) around the world – were developed at a time characterised by inflated expectations of the market, but the market is now having to face the challenge of declining average revenue per unit (ARPU) for IoT connectivity service, according to a report from IoT market research provider Berg Insight.
The study, IoT connectivity management platforms and eSIM solutions, fundamentally notes that market dynamics in the IoT CMP market have evolved in recent times, as suppliers focus on responding to the challenge of declining ARPU for IoT connectivity services. As a result, this has led to incumbent suppliers exiting the space, while others have had to rethink their product and pricing strategies, often involving tiered offerings and the addition of value-added services.
All in all, the study forecasts that annual IoT CMP revenues will grow at a CAGR of 12% from $1bn in 2024 to reach $1.8bn in 2029.
The analyst said the fragmentation of the IoT CMP landscape has given rise to a new type of product category called connectivity management orchestration (CMO) platforms, which ride on top of IoT CMPs through application programming interface integrations, first introduced by suppliers such as IoTM Solutions and Simetric, and now followed by several other IoT CMP suppliers and IoT MVNOs.
Berg Insight said a number of trends will positively influence the IoT CMP market in the coming years. First, it is confident IoT CMPs and value-added services can play a key role in helping mobile operators drive revenue in the enterprise market from their 5G network infrastructure.
Second, it said increased consolidation of operations to key markets by mobile operator groups would lead to a growing number of independent mobile operators, and thereby increasing the addressable market for third-party CMPs. In addition, new eSIM IoT specification SGP.32 would enable smaller mobile operators to utilise their existing SM-DP+ systems to offer eSIM services for the IoT market. That said, Berg cautioned that they will need to complement their offering with IoT CMPs.
Looking at the key players, the study cites Cisco as the largest IoT CMP provider globally. Berg said the company had a strong position in all major geographies and partnered with about 60 mobile operators worldwide at the end of 2024. The number of SIMs managed with Cisco IoT Control Centre reached about 262 million.
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Aeris was ranked as the second-largest IoT CMP supplier with 28 mobile operator partners and 84 million connected devices at the end of 2024. The study highlights how the company took over the IoT business of Ericsson in early 2023 and has since then successfully managed to modernise and streamline operations, while merging its legacy platform and the IoT Accelerator into a single platform.
Mavoco has emerged as a significant player in recent years, with more than 10 mobile operator partners at the year-end. Mavoco’s IoT CMP is cloud- and core-agnostic, allowing mobile operators to utilise existing infrastructure to cost-effectively address IoT customers globally. Other IoT CMP suppliers with a meaningful number of IoT CMP deployments are Comarch, Nokia and Vodafone.
Berg said IoT CMPs were also a key component in the value proposition from suppliers such as 1NCE, 1oT, Emnify, Eseye and FloLIVE, which operate as technology providers for mobile operators, as well as IoT MVNOs.
AT&T was given as an example of a mobile operator that has fully embraced the CMO concept, and announced together with Simetric the introduction of the IoT Console Single Pane of Glass in November 2024.
Enea was seen as another example of a supplier that provides adjacent products. Its IoT CCS service works in concert with existing IoT CMPs and enables mobile operators to offer a multi-tenant, private APN service to their enterprise customers.
New investments are targeted at remote SIM provisioning platform integrations, eSIM orchestration and connectivity management orchestration capabilities, machine learning-based analytics, security services, and programmable network capabilities enabled by 5G SA.
