The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to cause a decline in the growth of machine-to-machine solutions this year, in turn this will have a significant impact on the demand for testing and equipment that validates their performance.
In a recent analysis entitled “Growth Opportunities in Test and Measurement in the IoT Market, Forecast to 2025”, Frost and Sullivan pointed out the demand for IoT test and measurement on M2M devices, except those used in connected health applications, will take a hit in 2020 in the wake of the global health crisis.
However, Frost & Sullivan predicts a rebound by 2021 with the corresponding growth in M2M solutions market, which is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (of 5.1% to reach US$3.25 billion by 2025, up from US$2.40 billion in 2019.
“5G development for IoT use cases will continue to be important during the pandemic. Given the complex nature of its deployment, there would be a requirement for software-based testing solutions that can test virtualised 5G network slices as well as test broad frequency spectrums,” said Rohan Joy Thomas, Measurement & Instrumentation industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan. “Going forward, understanding the performance of proprietary applications on connected devices outside the enterprise secure network infrastructure is a key challenge that test and measurement companies need to resolve.”
He added that of all the IoT applications, test and measurement solutions that are used to test M2M applications in the connected home environment are the most dominant, representing 45.7% of all IoT test applications.
“As the healthcare sector plays a crucial role in combating COVID-19, test and measurement solutions used for connected health applications will experience the highest CAGR of all applications over the forecast period.”
The proliferation of IoT across industries has presented immense growth opportunities for market participants involved in the IoT test and measurement space. Frost & Sullivan recommends that they:
- Develop solutions that can test high-speed Ethernet interfaces as well as physical entities.
- Provide over-the-air testing solutions that can test sub-6 gigahertz as well as higher millimetre wave applications.
- Introduce enhanced software testing capabilities along with artificial intelligence, machine learning, and cybersecurity to enhance the portfolio
- Provide solutions that can regulate the consumption of energy from connected devices operating at narrowband frequencies and low energy levels, thereby increasing the device’s longevity.
