VDC’s AutoID & Data Capture Practice has, over the course of the past two decades, established itself as the leading authority for our coverage of the global markets of barcode printers and scanners. On the scanning side, we have seen the market grow from being dominated by a handful of vendors selling laser-based technology to its present state where camera-based solutions rule the roost. Technology advancements, coupled with fast declining price points, are directly responsible for the explosive growth that imaging solutions have experienced over the past few years. Lines between purpose-built fixed-position camera-based scanners and complex, imager-based systems used in manufacturing environments are blurring like never before. These developments have all contributed to VDC’s growing consideration of a new technology landscape – a palatable target for extending our research capabilities and industry expertise – the Machine Vision market. We fully expect growing convergence between industrial scanning and machine vision solutions to drive vendors’ product and market development strategies going forward. In 2014, VDC will provide its premiere thought leadership, rigorous research practices, and analytical prowess to provide a foundation upon which vendors, distributors, and end-users alike can glean a thorough conception of the machine vision market space.
The composition of the machine vision market is, however, quite unique. Several hundred companies boast revenues of more than one million USD and a considerable portion of these companies fall within a narrow revenue range at the top. This competitive ecosystem along with a breadth of market demands and emerging verticals pose several questions that are top-of-mind for machine vision vendors: what drives the machine vision market’s severe fragmentation? What are the different customer classes and market clusters that vendors serve? Which verticals, if any, should vendors be targeting with their product offerings? How can vendors and their solution partners differentiate in this heavily fragmented environment? Our research will seek to provide thorough answers to these pressing questions. Additionally, we will explore machine vision services, product applications, vendor strategies, and key verticals to create a holistic snapshot of the market space.
If applications within the industrial/manufacturing vertical are driving machine vision system adoption, deployment and sales today, VDC believes emerging verticals hold the key to future growth. Vision technology is already making a splash in these new application environments. New distribution channels and partnerships will form as vendors seek to establish domain expertise outside traditional industrial sectors. Our non-industrial, emerging vertical analysis will include Transportation & Logistics, Security & Surveillance, Life Sciences, and Traffic Monitoring & Control to provide vendors’ executive leadership teams with the knowledge base upon which to establish a firm strategic direction in an otherwise fluid space.
To learn more about our research offerings in the machine vision market, please feel free to view our research outline here.
(With significant contributions from Edmo Gamelin, Research Assistant)
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