M2M: When machines talk back, it's a good thing

M2M will change the world more than most people realise. The key reason for this is that so many different industries will experience efficiency gains from M2M. A recent article on manufacturing.net looks at M2M development and which sectors will be effected the most over the next 5 years.

Machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, interconnecting physical assets with each other and with people, is predicted to exceed $250 billion by 2010, according to Harbor Research estimates cited at the recent “M2M In Action: Strategy Summit & Networking Event” in Chicago. (No current M2M market value was provided.) Whatever the number, the enormity seems understandable, since M2M seems to incorporate residential, commercial, personal device communications, as well as multiple industrial categories, including industrial networks, wireless communications, data acquisition, monitoring, human-machine interfaces, and the related hardware, software, and services, across all industries.