Connected pallets are next greenfield IoT apps

Connected pallets are the most promising greenfield application enabled by the new wave of cellular and non-cellular LPWA technologies, according to Berg Insight.

The research firm said in a new report the global installed base of pallets used for transportation is estimated at around 10 billion units.

“With an average sales price of $10 per unit for regular pallets, the cost of adding connectivity can be justified by increasing efficiency in many logistics operations,” said Tobias Ryberg, senior analyst at Berg Insight.

“The ability to track pallets can also contribute to extending their lifespan which is currently around two years,” said Ryberg.

He added that several large industry players are evaluating connected pallets right now and they could proceed with large-scale deployments in the very near future.

Smart cities and smart agriculture are other potential mass-volume market segments where LPWA technologies will be a key enabler. Berg Insight however believes that there are significant barriers that must be overcome before they can scale.

Moving from today’s limited smart cities demonstration projects to city-wide deployments will be costly, complex and time-consuming. Smart agriculture is in an even earlier stage of development where the initial focus lies on proof-of-concept and application prototyping.

“Today’s top IoT devices – the connected car and the smart meter – needed more than a decade to mature”, said Ryberg. “The smart city and the intelligent farm will need at least that much time to grow from vision to reality.”