Health industry M2M forecast to exceed 770 million connections in 2020

Machina Research officially published it second Connected Intelligence report today, entitled Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Communication in Healthcare 2010-20. Lots of really interesting stuff in there including detailed M2M forecasts for adoption, traffic, technology and revenue across eight categories of healthcare application across 54 countries.

Here's a quote from my colleague Jim Morrish, the report's author: “The market for M2M healthcare applications will be huge, EUR69 billion in 2020. We expect that EUR3.1 billion of this revenue will go to mobile network operators for provision of data carriage services. A further EUR36 billion will be contested between systems integrators, device manufacturers, mobile operators and other service providers. At least EUR30 billion will almost certainly go to established manufacturers of medical equipment.”

The key findings of the report are as follows:

  • The installed base of M2M connected devices within the health sector will exceed 774 million by 2020. North America will be the largest region, with a share of worldwide connected medical devices peaking at 54% in 2014 and falling back to 42% by 2020, as growth in Europe accelerates


  • Short range connectivity technologies dominate throughout the forecast due to the typical topology of M2M healthcare solutions: the majority of solutions are characterized by multiple devices, connected to a central hub or aggregation device. Accordingly, we expect that the overwhelming majority of M2M connected healthcare devices will be connected only indirectly to wide area networks.


  • Consumer markets, particularly for the ‘worried well’ will be particularly attractive to mobile network operators, accounting for 76% of global M2M connections by 2020. The barriers to participation in consumer markets are also considerably lower than business markets, and available margins for solution providers can also be expected to be higher.


To take advantage of the opportunities in M2M connected healthcare, Mobile Network Operators should focus mainly on the consumer healthcare market, where brand assets, distribution channels and billing and customer service capabilities can be leveraged most effectively.

MNOs, Systems Integrators and the manufacturers of medical equipment should consider partnerships to bring to market products and services to support Clinical Remote Monitoring of patients in their homes, and certain Assisted Living solutions.

Potential manufacturers of connected medical devices for the consumer market should consider the benefits of partnering with fixed and mobile telecoms providers as channels to market, and also potentially to take advantage of the ability of such telecoms service providers to support the delivery of differentiated and higher-value service ‘wraps’.

The report examines the opportunities for MNOs, fixed line operators, device manufacturers, systems integrators and other service providers in addressing the rapidly growing market for embedded connectivity in the health sector, specifically home monitoring and personal monitoring for the worried well, telemedicine, first responder connectivity, connected medical environments, clinical remote monitoring, assisted living and clinical trials.

If you have a question about the report, you can contact Jim or me. We'll be happy to send you out an executive summary. More details of the report are also available on the website. The price of the report is EUR4,000 + VAT.

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