China Mobile and Vodafone top the overall ranking in Analysys Mason’s Emerging APAC IoT scorecard. Both companies have made extensive investment in network technologies and IoT capabilities. Both have dedicated IoT business units to drive growth, with a presence in multiple sectors.
The scorecard looked at six categories to rank overall IoT success including: strategy and vision, structure and organisation, ecosystem and partnership, market status and size, network status and technology, and capabilities and portfolio.
The report points other operators looking to build a strong IoT business to look at the approaches taken by Vodafone and China Mobile as current best practice for building success in IoT.
Sherrie Huang, Research Head in Asia-Pacific, and Michele Mackenzie, Principal Analyst, at Analysys Mason comment the latest IoT rankings.
In summary the Emerging APAC IoT scorecard found:
- Best practice and not size defines IoT leaders in Emerging Asia-Pacific
- Both operators have significant scale in the IoT market
- Size is just one of the six categories that the scorecard used to rate IoT success
- Independent IoT business units support market success
- Operators need an IoT division with a high level of independence
- China Mobile IoT subsidiary launched in 2012 – an independent business unit dedicated to grow its IoT business
- Vodafone IoT has a high degree of autonomy from Vodafone Group Enterprise. Also has Vodafone Automotive as a separate business unit.
- Operators need an IoT division with a high level of independence
- Both operators have made bold moves to support to support IoT specific wide-area networks
- China Mobile has conducted outdoor trials of NB-IoT with Huawei and ZTE. Also trialling LTE-M with Ericsson and Qualcomm.
- Vodafone has been at the forefront of promoting NB-IoT standards and have deployed the technology commercially in several European markets. It is looking to build the ecosystem and establish the technology as a worldwide standard.
- Operators have different approaches and start points for entering the IoT market, but the same best practices have led to success
Sherrie Huang commented: “China Mobile topped the overall leader ranking with its large scale in the IoT market, aggressive investment in its IoT business, leadership in technologies, and strong enabling capabilities.”
Michele Mackenzie added: “Vodafone is a leader in our recent IoT scorecard ranking thanks to its advanced vision and strategy, strong enabling capabilities, extensive international coverage and partnerships.”
If you would like to speak to Sherrie Huang or Michele Mackenzie, please email Malini Sivaraman (APAC) or Sarah-Jane Humphries (ROW) at the Press Office via press@analysysmason.com.
See also our latest report IoT Scorecard 2017: communications service providers in emerging Asia-Pacific, which discusses these opportunities in greater detail
