This week, I thought I would take a quick look at the upcoming prospects for some interesting position sensor markets.
Mil/Aero: In the recently published VDC position sensing reports, we had estimated that the Military component of the Mil/Aero segment that had been a bastion of stability in the economic downturn would take some hits as big ticket items such as the F-22 are phased out and the strategy of future replacements are focused on less costly un-manned alternatives. Obviously the political process may delay these changes but the new weapon architecture will eventually be significant to the market in 2012 and beyond. This process will change the technical profiles (smaller/less costly) and quantities (more) of the sensors that are involved but the overall market with respect to revenues will be relatively unchanged.
Healthcare/Medical: One result of recent military conflicts are the number of severely injured soldiers that will need long term care and new technologies that will (hopefully) allow them to get back to a near normal civilian life. We see that there are a number of companies deploying sensors and robotics that will allow these people to regain lost mobility. From a long term military/government/ healthcare perspective, this makes a great deal of economic sense. Although the upfront costs of these pioneering products are very high, the long term costs will be much lower especially if it makes disabled people more productive and healthier. This looks to be a growth market for sensors that are small, durable, and power efficient.
Retail/Material Handling: Another potential growth area for sensors has to be in the area of warehouse automation. As we see today, Cyber Monday by many accounts was an unprecendented success with over $1Billion in orders being placed. The best companies in this market have to have excellent logistics, inventory control, and fulfillment processes. In the world of Cyber Shopping, that usually means same day shipping or the customers go to alternative vendors (and there are usually plenty). Toward that end, we see a few new companies innovating in that market beyond the standard conveyor and material handling / identification technologies. As more of the retail market moves to on-line, this also looks to be a growing market for sensing technology.
As we look to 2011 and beyond, it will be interesting to see what happens in these growing and changing markets particularly with respect to position sensing products.
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