Huawei and Vodafone have topped a new scorecard measuring Internet of Things connectivity management platforms (CMPs), edging out rivals Cisco Jasper and Ericsson.
The scorecard, from research house IHS, tracks criteria including number of connections, support for numerous kinds of connectivity, variety of deployments and the company’s perception among the wider industry.
Sam Lucero, Senior Principal Analyst for M2M and IoT at IHS Markit, said: “Huawei and Vodafone ranked as this year’s scorecard leaders based on a number of factors.
“Huawei’s cumulative cellular IoT connection count exploded in 2016 on the back of its work with Chinese operators. Vodafone has quietly established a global footprint of operator partners that not only use its platform, but often its global network and global IoT SIM, as well.”
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Cisco Jasper, Ericsson and HPE rounded out IHS’s top five. Lucero noted while the CMP space had been dominated by Cisco Jasper and Ericsson, the past 18 months have seen a shift towards Asia and massive IoT deployments.
Another recently development in the market has been the move towards more cost-efficient solutions and the integration of these CMPs with application enablement platforms (AEP).
Lucero added: “HPE introduced an innovative AEP in its Universal IoT Platform and, late in 2016, extended this with a CMP component.
“Likewise, ZTE benefitted from exceptional underlying Chinese market growth in addition to opening up new emerging markets in sub-Saharan Africa.”