US demand to grow 10+% per year through 2009
The US market for biometric and other electronic access control products and systems will increase more than ten percent per year through 2009 to $7.2 billion. Technological innovation, relatively high crime rates, falling prices, and ongoing fears of terrorism will all remain important growth drivers, bolstered by an expanding economy and a boom in fixed investment markets such as offices and lodging places. Government efforts to bolster homeland security, ranging from research and testing to the development of open standards to direct financial support, will also spur demand.
Biometric systems to grow the fastest
Biometric systems enjoy especially strong growth prospects, with annual gains expected to approach 30 percent. Along with fingerprint and hand geometry systems, which have already achieved some commercialization, nonintrusive biometric technologies such as facial and voice recognition hold the potential to develop into fairly sizeable markets over a comparatively short time. Iris scanners, which offer extremely accurate personal identification, also hold favorable prospects. Smart card-based access control systems will log double-digit annual gains, albeit from an even smaller base than biometrics.
Software, systems integration to also do well
Also holding favorable prospects are products that maximize the performance of latter-generation electronic access control systems, especially un- bundled access control software and database management/systems integration equipment. More established products such as keypad/combination systems and magnetic stripe and wireless/proximity card-based systems will register respectable, but still below-average, gains.
Air transport to lead market gains
Most market sectors will register healthy growth. The best gains will come in the air transport segment, where the bulk of the post- 9/11/2001 investment in explosive detection devices has now been completed, freeing up additional resources for spending on biometrics and other access controls. Also enjoying above average prospects are less tapped markets such as financial and business services, as well as the bedrock industrial sector, which accounts for almost one-fourth of total demand. The government and institutional markets, while more mature, hold good prospects in a number of specialized applications including border control and protection of sensitive government facilities and health care records. The residential market will record below-average gains, a reflection of growing maturity in the bedrock motor vehicle keyless entry systems segment.
Study coverage
Details on these and other key findings are contained in a new Freedonia industry study, Biometric & Competitive Electronic Access Controls, which gives historical US demand data through 1994 plus forecasts to 2009 and 2014 by product (e.g., keypad/combination, various card types, various biometric technologies, software) and by market. This study also considers crime and public safety trends, regulatory issues and technological developments; evaluates market share; and profiles 34 firms.
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