2013/09/06 APIs playing key role in service delivery platform and M2M markets

Campbell, CALIFORNIA, September 10, 2013—Market research firm Infonetics Research released excerpts from its latest Service Delivery Platform Software and Services report, which tracks the wireless and fixed-line service delivery platform (SDP) software and services that operators use to create and deliver services to their subscribers.

“API exposure continues to be a hot topic in the SDP space, as operators look to capitalize on assets such as call control, payment systems, and subscriber information by providing secure access to both internal developers and third-party providers,” reports Shira Levine, directing analyst for service enablement and subscriber intelligence at Infonetics Research.

Levine continues: “While initial interest has focused on the consumer opportunity, we believe that API exposure will be particularly important in the emerging machine-to-machine (M2M) space, enabling operators to insert themselves into the value chain beyond providing basic connectivity.”

• Increasingly, operators are deploying service delivery platforms (SDPs) as a bridge between their existing and next-generation service efforts
• Business-to-business applications are growing in popularity, notably enterprise app stores and vertical-specific apps for telemedicine, smart grid, and telematics
• On the vendor front, Alcatel-Lucent and NSN have backed away from the SDP market, and M&A activity is heating up: Intel acquired Aepona and Mashery, and CA purchased Layer 7
• Infonetics expects the SDP market to grow the most in developing regions in Asia Pacific, CALA (Caribbean and Latin America), and the Middle East, where operators are seeking to further differentiate services and counter low ARPU