For mobile comms and messaging platforms, the ecosystem is somewhat fractured. With industry leader WhatsApp announcing the integration of voice services back in August, it could be seen as a sign that companies with pure mobile messaging plays might be on the way out.

Bosbec, based in Sweden, is different. The company incorporates a business messaging solution, yet has a play in the Internet of Things (IoT).

And according to technical chief Jakob Sjoberg, whilst WhatsApp’s move was a good one, his company has enough of a differentiator to keep with the pace.

“We are more a platform where you can communicate with anything – solutions that can communicate with your refridgerator, for example,” Sjoberg explains. “We think that the messaging solutions are growing very fast, and they have an extremely fast future.”

It’s true to say that machine to machine (M2M) communications are evolving – maturing – into the Internet of Things. One doesn’t have to look very far for the latest report stressing the importance of IoT – step forward Frost & Sullivan, who earlier this week described IoT as a “pivotal catalyst” for IT buyers and sellers in 2014.

Sjoberg notes the strength of the play, but asserts it’s not there yet.

“Right now [M2M] is not very important, but we think it will be very important in a couple of years,” he notes. “We’ll see that the demand for it is increasing.”

One of the issues noted with M2M – or, rather, how it’s seen in the press – is that the focus on the sheer number of devices isn’t really the most compelling metric to judge the technology’s impact.

It may seem strange but, as James Monighan argues, “devices will connect across all technologies, so we need to move on from that.”

Sjoberg agrees that M2M isn’t looked at in the right way, but notes a different perspective.

“From what we can see, it’s the same technology for us given it’s an M2M solution, or if it’s a person-to-person to technology,” Sjoberg explains. “It’s the same solution, there is no difference.”

For now though, it’s interesting how two technologies with differing potential – and differing lifespans – are moving forward. Where do you see the future of M2M and mobile messaging?