Annual revenues from the sales of cellular IoT gateways are forecast to grow at a CAGR of 14 per cent to reach $2.18bn by 2026, according to Berg Insight.

More than 4.5 million cellular IoT gateways were shipped globally during 2021, at a total market value of approximately $1.15bn. Annual sales grew at a rate of 14 per cent as demand recovered following the Covid-19 pandemic. The industry experienced at the same time constrained supply of key components such as cellular modules and CPUs, resulting in extended delivery times.

Sales growth has continued into 2022 but will likely slowdown in 2023 as economic conditions tighten across the main regions. Until 2026, annual revenues from the sales of cellular IoT gateways are forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 14 per cent to reach $2.18bn.

Cellular IoT gateways include general-purpose routers, gateways and modems that provide primary or failover cellular connectivity to devices in a local network. The product category has evolved over the past decades from simple networking devices to aggregation points for devices, implementing functionality for security and edge computing. The market is driven by the growing need to connect assets and work forces in remote and temporary locations as enterprises digitalise their operations.

Cradlepoint, part of Ericsson since late 2020, is the clear leader in the space and differentiates itself by selling its routers combined with software and services exclusively through a subscription model. Teltonika Networks is the runner up and achieved the highest growth rate in the industry of close to 100 per cent.

Other vendors that hold significant market shares are Cisco, Sierra Wireless and Digi. These five vendors generated $625m in combined annual revenues from the sales of cellular IoT gateways and routers and hold a market share of 54 per cent.

Other important vendors include MultiTech, Lantronix, Systech and Casa Systems in the USA; InHand Networks, Peplink, Hongdian, Robustel and Advantech in Asia-Pacific; and HMS Networks, NetModule, Matrix Electrónica, Westermo and RAD in the EMEA region.

The European and Asia Pacific markets are fragmented with a large number of small and medium sized players that generate annual revenues in the range of $5m to $25m.