NB- IoT Chipset Market

NB-IoT Chipset Market Expected to be Fragmented; Likely to Register a Significantly High Growth Rate during the Forecast Period 

NB-IoT chipsets are hardware components that are mandatory for enabling an NB-IoT network and a Low-Power Wide-Area Network (LPWAN). Increasing awareness about the advantages associated with IoT, with the increasing penetration of the same, has propelled the demand for NB-IoT networks as well as NB-IoT chipsets across the globe, especially across emerging countries such as India, China, and Mexico.

As NB-IoT is a major segment of cellular IoT and it enables an IoT M2M environment even in the absence of the Internet, it is expected to witness a high growth rate. Owing to the same, initiatives have also been undertaken by the governments of various countries in collaboration with telecom service providers such as Vodafone. This has boosted the demand for hardware components such as NB-IoT chipsets/modules. 

Growth in the LTE market is expected to boost the in-band segment

In this report, PMR has segmented the global NB-IoT chipset market on the basis of deployment type, device, and industry vertical. By deployment type, the NB-IoT chipset market is segmented into in-band, guard band, and standalone.

Among the three segments, the standalone segment was witnessed to hold the minimum market share in 2018 in the global NB-IoT chipset market. Due to the complexities associated with the standalone deployment type segment, the same trend is expected to be witnessed in the global NB-IoT chipset market during the forecast period.

In addition, the increasing deployment of LTE across the globe, as it integrates easily with the in-band deployment model, is expected to be among the factors boosting the deployment segment during the forecast period. Thus, while the standalone segment of the NB-IoT chipset market is expected to witness a decline in its NB-IoT chipset market share during the forecast period, the in-band segment is expected to witness a gain in its share in the NB-IoT chipset market during the forecast period. 

However, due to the easy integration of LTE-M with LTE (as compared to the integration of NB-IoT with LTE), a higher preference for the same has been witnessed in some of the countries, especially across the U.S., in the cellular IoT market. Thus, the higher preference for LTE-M is hampering the growth of the global NB-IoT chipsets market. 

Increasing demand for trackers is boosting the adoption of NB-IoT chipsets

On the basis of device, the NB-IoT chipset market has been segmented into smart appliances, smart meters, trackers, alarms & detectors, wearable devices, and others. In terms of value, the smart meters segment is expected to exhibit a significant market share throughout the forecast period in the global NB-IoT chipset market.

The same segment in the global NB-IoT chipset market is expected to be highly lucrative in terms of incremental opportunity owing to the early adoption of NB-IoT chipsets across the energy segment, and the high demand & growth rate associated with the segment in the NB-IoT chipsets market.

However, the trackers segment is expected to exhibit the highest growth rate during the forecast period due to the high demand for M2M connection and investments made by the government to initiate smart city projects across developed and emerging countries in the global NB-IoT chipset market. 

The infrastructure & building automation and energy sectors are expected to contribute to the growth of the global NB-IoT chipset market

On the basis of industry vertical, the NB-IoT chipset market is segmented into agriculture, automation & transportation, energy, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, safety & security, infrastructure & building automation, and others. The advent of technology and the increasing penetration of smart devices has boosted the demand for smart homes and smart cities among end users.

As the adoption of NB-IoT chipsets enables a connected devices M2M environment, the infrastructure and building automation segment is expected to witness high growth in terms of value in the global NB-IoT chipset market. Moreover, the energy segment is expected to witness the high adoption of NB-IoT chipsets and the high demand for smart meters due to the increasing awareness about energy consumption.

China is expected to be the most dominant region in the NB-IoT chipset market in terms of market share throughout the forecast period

On the basis of region, the NB-IoT chipset market has been segmented into North America, Western Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Middle East & Africa, and Japan. China was witnessed to be the most dominant country in the global NB-IoT chipset market in terms of market share in 2017.

Due to the investments made by the government for having a base of 1.5 million NB-IoT network base stations by 2020, the region is further expected to exhibit a high growth rate during the forecast period in the global NB-IoT chipsets market. Asia Pacific excluding Japan, in conjunction with Latin America, is expected to hold a market share of approximately 50% by 2020 in the global NB-IoT chipset market.

The manufacturers of NB-IoT chipsets are aiming at partnering with service providers to expand their businesses across the globe

With an intention of expanding the sales of NB-IoT chipset and strengthening their position in the NB-IoT chipset market, the vendors of NB-IoT chipsets are focusing on partnering/collaborating with various telecom service providers such as Vodafone, T-Mobile, and Sprint.

Some of the participants in the global NB-IoT chipset market are Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Qualcomm Technologies Co., Ltd., Intel Corporation, ARM Holdings AG, u-Blox Holding AG, SEQUANS, Altair Semiconductor,  Nordic Semiconductor, Quectel Wireless Solutions, and Sierra Wireless.

As the NB-IoT technology is still at a nascent stage, only a limited presence of NB-IoT chipsets is witnessed in the global NB-IoT chipset market.

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