Clear leaders in the burgeoning M2M market are fast appearing, says the specialist market intelligence firm Machina Research.

The company's latest study claims that Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom and AT&T will lead the global M2M market based on their expected revenue  in 2020. By this time, these three operators will together account for 35 per cent of the €25 billion in M2M revenues being gained by the top 20 mobile operators.

Commenting on how the M2M sector will evolve--from a mobile operator's perspective--Machina Research director Matt Hatton said: "The top 10 mobile operators represent our Premier League of M2M communication providers. Vodafone tops the table followed closely by Deutsche Telekom and AT&T. The next rank of operators includes Verizon Wireless, Telefonica/O2 and China Mobile. The third grouping comprises China Unicom, Orange and Sprint. Telenor makes up the top 10, well ahead of the second tier of global players."

Hatton added that access to the U.S. and Chinese markets where significant revenues will be generated, are critical to success in M2M because those markets will account for almost 40 per cent of M2M revenue in 2020.

"All of the major operators in these markets make it into the top 10, Hatton said. "The other thing that stands out is the importance of global alliances. Most of the biggest players in the top 10 have developed strategic alliances to better address global demand."

To illustrate this point, the Machina study highlights the global groupings of Vodafone and Verizon Wireless, Deutsche Telekom's escalating alliance with Orange and TeliaSonera (which includes Everything Everywhere), and Telefonica's alliance with Etisalat and China Unicom.