A new report from Informa Telecoms & Media says M2M growth is lagging behind industry expectations, with 132 million mobile connections in June and $5.68 billion (£3.5 billion) revenue generated in the previous 12 months.

That’s the equivalent of one M2M connection for every 50 ‘human’ connections and $1 of M2M revenue for every $200 of service revenue.

IBM and Vodafone have announced a collaboration that combines mobile communications and cloud computing to enable the remote management of ‘smart home’ appliances.

The two companies have demonstrated the technology at the IFA consumer electronics event, showing how a washing machine and other domestic systems can be controlled via a smartphone.

Mark Bridge writes:

BlackBerry and bad news seem inextricably linked at the moment. RIM’s CEO admits he’s “not satisfied” with recent company performance and warns of challenging times ahead... and then the company is hit by a $147 million dollar damages order for patent infringement.

Mind you, Research In Motion wasn’t the only mobile company bringing disappointment into the mainstream news last week.

Seven major mobile network operators - KPN, NTT DOCOMO, Rogers, SingTel, Telefónica, Telstra and Vimpelcom - have formed an alliance that’ll see them working together on machine-to-machine (M2M) projects.

The initiative is also open to other operators.

Everything Everywhere and Nokia Siemens Networks have announced a machine-to-machine partnership that will link vending machines to NSN's cloud-based VendMe service via Everything Everywhere SIM cards.

It allows vending machine owners to take advantage of remote stock monitoring, location-based promotional messages and mobile payments.