There is a burst of creative ideas emerging in the Machine-to-Machine (M2M) space or what has become more affectionately known as the Internet-of-things world. With so many opportunities around the globe to connect devices and assets, many companies are starting to stake out claims in the M2M space. However, while much of the attention has been focused on the machine part of the equation, people are the ultimate stakeholders. After all, it is the individual who will benefit and have the power to act on the information through smart apps. Some of the most promising opportunities are in the automobile, smart metering, eHealth, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and home security industries, but many more examples are emerging.
In many of these cases actual deployment is still minimal, but the potential is there for creative and exciting large-scale implementations, some of which may even start locally and grow into global solutions.