Growing Adoption of Wireless Sensors Driving Big CAGRs

September 08, 2016

Wellesley, Mass., Sep 8, 2016 – The wireless sensor network (WSN) technology landscape is in flux, with many competing standards vying for the same market. BCC Research reveals in its new report that wireless sensors engender a wide array of monitoring and management use cases previously considered untenable. These devices have opened an entirely new market of application possibilities apart from opening avenues for improvement in existing processes.

Wireless sensors employ wireless communication methodologies for transmitting readings and observations. These devices are the actual sensing elements used in WSN. They do not include gateways or management software. This report deals exclusively with wireless technologies employed in the personal area network (PAN) and local area network (LAN) topologies. It does not cover wide area networks (e.g., commercial cellular networks).

The global market for wireless sensor devices should grow from nearly $2.4 billion in 2016 to nearly $7.7 billion by 2021 with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26.7%. The home automation and other indoor applications market, the largest segment, should reach $2.7 billion by 2021 on a projected five-year CAGR of 22.4%. Industrial installations, the fastest-growing segment with a CAGR of 38.2%, should total $1 billion by 2021, up from $204 million in 2016.

The defense sector, the protracted turmoil in the Middle East and African regions, as well as an arms race in the Asia-Pacific region, will translate into hectic defense product development across the globe. Products in this domain are not bound by the constraints associated with attractive pricing requirements that influence civilian customer markets. Possibilities opened by wireless sensors have enormous implications for the defense sector.

The industrial end-application confronts a fragmented technological landscape in wireless personal area networks. The fragmentation has adversely impacted the growth prospects of wireless sensors. Nevertheless, the gap between the demand for wireless sensor adoption and the limited number of actual adoptions is so wide that the industrial installation end-vertical application should grow the fastest among all end-vertical applications.

Home automation and other indoor end-vertical applications will continue as the largest contributor to the market. However, intense competition among wireless technologies such as ZigBEE, EnOcean, Z-wave, 6LoWPAN (Thread) and Bluetooth Smart should weaken its influence. Ecosystems associated with each of these applications continue to put considerable investment and effort in ensuring the privacy of their technology. As a result, the market has witnessed hectic rollout of wireless sensor-enabled products.

"Home automation and similar application stakeholders have been among the quickest in product rollout," says BCC Research analyst Shalini Ramamurthy. "This factor is reflected in the dominance of the end-application vertical. Its influence is bound to recede as other end applications, most notably in the industrial domain, begin to aggressively adopt wireless sensors."

Wireless Sensors: Technologies and Global Markets (IAS019C) analyzes the devices by end-vertical applications in terms of dollar and unit sales, the challenges posed by technology issues, and the challenges posed by business issues like, multiplicity of wireless standards and technologies. Global market drivers and trends, with data from 2015, 2016, and projections of CAGRs through 2021 also are provided.

Editors and reporters who wish to speak with the analyst should contact Steven Cumming at steven.cumming@bccresearch.com.

Wireless Sensors: Technologies and Global Markets( IAS019C )
Publish Date: Sep 2016    

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