Consumer Asset Tracking Solutions 3rd Edition

Consumer asset tracking is a sub-segment of the wider consumer IoT market. While the latterconcept includes all IoT devices developed for the consumer market, consumer asset trackingfocuses on solutions and services that utilise location data. To enable remote monitoring andcontrol, a solution must include GNSS or other positioning technology and some type of wirelesswide area network such as cellular networks, satellite networks, LoRa or Sigfox. Trackingsolutions based solely on short-range technologies such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are not includedin the report.

The market can be divided into four main categories based on asset type – family and child tracking, pet tracking, vehicle tracking and general-purpose asset tracking. The vehicle category can be further divided into cars; motorcycles and mopeds; bicycles; caravans and motorcaravans; leisure boats; and other consumer vehicles including ATVs and snowmobiles. Thegeneral asset tracking segment includes any type of asset, such as bags and luggage, keys,wallets, clothes, electronics, tools and sports equipment. As this report focuses on products andsolutions aimed at consumers, solutions developed and sold exclusively to business customers are excluded.

The market potential for consumer asset tracking is huge. In Europe and North America, there are close to 70 million children aged 4–10 years old, which is the typical age group for kids GPS watches. There are furthermore almost 380 million dogs and cats, about 615 million passenger cars and 160 million other consumer vehicles. The overall penetration rate of GPS tracking products is currently around 1.1 percent. The largest consumer asset tracking segments today, based on the number of active units, are car tracking, kids GPS watches and pet tracking. Berg Insight estimates that the installed base of active consumer asset tracking devices in Europe and North America reached 15.0 million at the end of 2024. Growing at a CAGR of 15.4 percent, the number of units in active use is estimated to reach 30.7 million units by the end of 2029. The market value is forecasted to grow from € 2.0 billion in 2024 to € 4.1 billion in 2029.

Leading providers of family tracking and parental control services include US-based Smartcom Mobility Solutions, Smith Micro Software and Life360. Smartcom Mobility Solutions is a platform provider for kids GPS watches and other consumer asset tracking segments, used by several MNOs, OEMs and ODMs in the US and Europe. Smith Micro offers white-label solutions to MNOs and has contracts with major mobile operators in the US. Life360 offers a mobile app for location sharing and messaging that has close to 80 million monthly active users. Major providers of kids GPS watches include Xplora Technologies in Europe and Verizon in North America. The pet tracking market is dominated by Austria-based Tractive, whose subscriber base has grown to about 1.5 million. In North America, the main providers of pet tracking solutions are Fi and Halo. The latter company offers a combined pet GPS tracking and containment solution.

The market for passenger car tracking solutions sold to consumers is led by Verizon, Mojio, Passtime GPS, Tail Light and Agnik in North America and Net4Things, Air and Protectus Technologies (CarLock) in Europe. Although OEM telematics is increasingly common within the automotive industry, there is still a growing interest in aftermarket telematics solutions. Leading providers of GPS tracking and vehicle recovery solutions for motorcycles and mopeds in Europe include Datatool (Scorpion Automotive), Mapit IoT, Trackting, Monimoto, GeoRide and SMT Performances. A few companies provide tracking solutions developed specifically for caravans, leisure boats and other consumer vehicles. Europe-based Sensar Marine, NorthTracker, Sentinel Marine Solutions, Sense4Boat and Sailsense Analytics as well as US-based Siren Marine and Faria Beede offer solutions developed for leisure boats. General-purpose tracking solutions and solutions developed for other types of vehicles are often used to serve these segments as well. Along with the growing market for electric bicycles, the market for GPS trackers for e-bicycles and other high-value bicycles is growing as well. The market is today served by European companies such as IoT Venture, PowUnity, Haveltec, BikeFinder and Tracefy. Trackimo, Invoxia, PAJ and LandAirSea are examples of well-known providers of general-purpose tracking devices.

The consumer asset tracking solutions market is still in an early phase with tremendous growth potential. Advancements in battery capacity, processor power and network technology will continuously enable better solutions at lower price points which will lead to a higher demand from consumers. Many solution providers covered in this report have recently introduced new tracking devices based on Low-Power Wide-Area (LPWA) network technologies. LPWA technologies are especially valuable in market segments where low battery consumption is key, such as pet tracking, bicycle tracking and general asset tracking. Several vendors have also begun integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into their offerings. AI enables companies to gain a competitive edge by enhancing product functionality and delivering advanced features such as improved health and activity monitoring in pet trackers and predictive maintenance in vehicle trackers.