Kenyan firms have been ranked the highest in terms of Machine to Machine (M2M) communication adoption on the continent, a survey revealed.

The survey conducted by market research and analysis firm, the International Data Corporation, found that the most common M2M applications are vending machines, fleet management and security monitoring.

Out of those surveyed, 50% of the respondents said that they had already adopted M2M technologies, with another 27% preparing to deploy the technology within three years.

M2M technologies enable wireless and wired systems to communicate via a seamless network.

These technologies have been in existence for a while but only became more popular with the global adoption and deployment of the Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6).

"Indeed, Kenya has witnessed increasing uptake of M2M connectivity services across various vertical sectors," according to the results of the Annual Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA) WAN Managers Study 2013 Survey. 

“We expect the Kenya M2M market to grow significantly over the next three years as an increasing number of companies are looking toward IT to support business transformation and spur continued growth,” said the IDC.

Despite the growing popularity of M2M technology in the country, the IDC noted that Kenya was still lagging behind in M2M applications such as pay-as-you-drive-insurance, smart metering and intelligence building.

"This is due to the numerous inherent complexities involved when attempting to implement and manage such advanced M2M technologies," explained Mervin Miemoukanda, a senior research analyst for telecommunications, software, and IT services at IDC South Africa.

The IDC also said that the growth of this technology in Kenya and Africa as a whole will depend on the emergence of service providers who will have the support capabilities for different applications and networks in M2M communication.