As 2019 draws to a close, it is time for me as CEO of Thinxtra to thank all our partners and customers for a tremendous year of momentum and success and to share five predictions I believe will change the IoT market in 2020. 2019 will be remembered as the year when the market confirmed Sigfox 0G technology as the de-facto standard for non-powered low-cost asset tracking for supply chain, with an avalanche of global announcements including DHL, Peugeot Supply Chain and Michelin Containers.
This sends a simple and significant message to the industry: because, after years of due diligence, these Tier 1 companies are investing millions of dollars in new, mass-IoT enabled business models to accelerate efficiency, they trust Sigfox for their IoT communications.
The market realised that the business case for locating non-powered assets at scale requires 0G to deliver ROI. These 0G use cases are real and are cutting through the hype from incumbent telco providers, who base solutions on NB-IoT or LTE-M and tend to face difficulties of meeting their battery life predictions in the field.
In our regions, we’re already seeing an uptake of asset tracking use cases, with close to 1 million non-powered assets – trolleys, kegs, IBCs, cages, trailers and more – committed in 2019 to connect onto our Sigfox 0G network over the next 4 years.
The Sigfox Connect 2019 conference two weeks ago proved to us that we’ve moved beyond technology possibilities to real IoT projects at a global scale as there are 65 Sigfox operators experiencing the same traction: IoT adoption accelerated in 2019, and next year promises to be even faster.
Here are our top 5 IoT predictions for 2020:
#1: More large scale non-powered asset tracking
We anticipate many more announcements of large scale Sigfox-connected non-powered asset tracking projects, locally and globally.
#2: Market entry of B2C players
The landscape will evolve with the entry of various B2C IoT players in ANZ and Hong Kong. From pet trackers to kid trackers, the market demand is clear: simple, low cost, long battery life trackers with good UX.
#3: Utilities will start to consider new ways to connect
Some utilities overseas are already realising Sigfox is a compelling technology for gas and water meters connected over public IoT networks. In Europe there are hundreds of thousands of water meters on the Sigfox network, and the market is accelerating with two recent large-scale commitments from industry giants in other regions.
Leading Brazilian utility, SABESP, has chosen to deploy 100,000 Sigfox-enabled water meter readers, with a plan to scale to 10 million over the next 7 years. And Japanese firm NICIGAS announced the roll out of 850,000 Sigfox-enabled gas meter readers.
Predictive 15 years battery life on an existing public IoT network is attractive and we see 2020 as the year with many partnerships in the Utility sector to prepare and connect at scale in 2021 onwards.
#4: Fit-for-Purpose is the key to success in IoT
2020 will be the year where the market realises that each IoT technology has its own fit-for-purpose solution and that success demands deep IoT expertise and a scalable end-to-end customer-centric orientation. The market will also appreciate the complexity of IoT solutions means traditional telcos have difficulties to deliver cost effective value.
#5: Sigfox will confirm market leadership for 0G
In 2019, many Tier 1 organisations evaluated Sigfox against other communication approaches, such as private and/or public networks. Sigfox was ultimately chosen based on certainty of battery life, network longevity and the lowest total cost of data production. In 2020, we expect the market will follow this trend and that Sigfox will confirm market leadership for mass IoT. In Australia, we believe Sigfox will become the prerequisite to many deployments where long battery life is critical for success.
In 2020, you will also see Thinxtra’s strengthening its positioning as true “IoT telco”, with the commitment to offer our partners and customers the right fit-for-purpose IoT network and solutions.
We are truly excited about the opportunities we can unlock together. Thank you to all our partners and customers for your continued support. For us, each new connection means more efficiency in the world and a step closer toward carbon neutrality, and this fuels our energy and passion!
We wish you a successful, healthy and happy 2020.
About Thinxtra
Thinxtra is empowering the Internet of Things in Asia Pacific by operating the world-leading Sigfox LPWA network as well as enabling a full eco-system of IoT solutions and services partners to connect the non-connected, to increase productivity, to accelerate decision making, to improve quality of service and quality of life, and to find more economical solutions to common problems.
Sigfox is the world’s leading provider of connectivity for the Internet of Things (IoT). The company has built a global network to connect billions of devices to the Internet while consuming as little energy as possible, as simply as possible. Sigfox’s unique approach to device-to-cloud communications addresses the three greatest barriers to global IoT adoption: cost, energy consumption, and global scalability.
Thinxtra is backed by the CEFC, an Australian Government fund with a mission to accelerate local transformation towards more efficiencies.
More info at thinxtra.com/profile
