LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM and BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - The rapidly developing M2M (machine-to-machine) market suffered a setback in 2008 with growth in cellular module shipments stalling overall compared with 2007, according to a new Worldwide Cellular M2M Market Forecast released today by leading analyst firm and M2M specialist Beecham Research.

This was in contrast to the normal robust growth of the M2M market and came as a result of projects being cancelled or postponed and component stocks being run down, particularly in the second half of 2008. Nevertheless, Beecham sees growth returning in 2010 and reaching annual module sales of over $2bn by 2013 with many new products and services reaching the market.

The Machine to Machine market covers use of the Internet for collecting, processing and distributing real time data from remote devices. This "Internet of Things" is increasingly being viewed as the next step forward for the Internet, offering enormous opportunities for businesses to differentiate the services they offer in their own markets.

Beecham Research's latest forecast includes worldwide market share estimates for suppliers in 2008, together with unit and revenue projections to 2013. Unit price projections are also included. All of Beecham's forecasts are broken down by major application sector. The forecast includes regional projections for Americas, Europe and AsiaPac also broken down to major application and a further split by technology type - GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA-based versus CDMA/1xRTT/EVDO-based.