Yole: Industrial machine vision market to grow at 15% CAGR to reach $2B in 2018

Date: 24/06/2013
Yole Développement finds versatile detection, versatile inspection and compact 3D inspection to fuel most of the machine vision industrial market’s growth, driven by new low-end applications. Yole says from a non-industrial standpoint, all identified segments will sustain steady, high growth at a 15%+ CAGR; namely high-end IP surveillance, license plate recognition and automotive safety.
Yole Développement estimates by 2018, the industrial machine vision market will reach nearly $2B.

“Total industrial machine vision sales accounted for 1.2M cameras in 2012, a number expected to reach $2B in 2018, at an 8% CAGR. After moderate 1% growth in 2012 (a reflection of the economic downturn facing the global industry), an upturn is expected in the future, thanks to the automatization trend in Asian factories, new capital expenditures in the semiconductor industry and the emergence of new low-end applications,” explains Paul Danini, Technology & Market Analyst, Imaging Technologies & MEMS Devices, at Yole Développement.

The key findings shared by the Yole in the machine vision systems market includes:
Growth in the low-end segments will be driven by strong price erosion stemming from the commoditization of machine vision subsystems. Machine vision players’ main challenge will be how to gain market share in the dynamic low-end market segments while maintaining sustainable profitability. Concurrently, adjacent non-industrial applications are expected to burgeon at a double-digit rate, driving future growth.

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Fragmented shares will fuel market consolidation
Machine vision applications’ complex diversity resulted in the emergence of a multitude of small machine vision camera manufacturers. Consequently, the machine vision market is very fragmented at the camera level. On the flip side, the machine vision image sensor market is quite concentrated due to the presence of strong technical know-how necessary for designing to a specific sensor.
From a technological standpoint, industrial machine vision is mostly characterized by incremental innovations: subsystem manufacturers increasing resolution, frame rate and subsystem capacity. The market’s technological maturity makes disruptive innovation challenging, and minimizes any unique selling proposition.

The combination of high fragmentation and limited product differentiation has led the machine vision market to unavoidable commoditization, driven by strong price competition from companies like Point Grey Research and Basler. Now that the market has attained significant manufacturing volume, it’s highly probable that a consolidation will occur at the low-end through successive acquisitions by market leaders strategically positioned there.

Companies studied by Yole includes ADIMEC, Alexima, Allied Vision Technology, Anafocus, Aphesa, Aptina Imaging, Awaiba, Basler, Banner Engineering, Baumer Optronics, Bluetechnix, CMOSIS, Cognex, Critical Link, Datalogic, Dongbu Hitek, Dynamax Imaging, e2v, Edixia, Edmund Optics, EVT, Fotonic, FRAMOS, Hamamatsu Photonics, IDS Imaging, IFM, IMEC, ImperX, Industriesensorik Gmbh, ISRA Vision, JAI, JDSU, Kappa Optronics Gmbh, Leuze Electronic, Lfoundry, LMI Technologies, Lumenera, Matrix Vision, Matrox Imaging, Melexis, MESA Imaging, Micron, Microscan, Mobotix, New Imaging Technologies, NED, Odos Imaging, Omnivision, Omron, ON Semiconductor, Optomotive Mechatronics, Panasonic, Pelco, Photonfocus, PMD Technologies, Point Grey Research, Pyxalis, SensoPart, SICK IVP, SK Hynix, Smartray, SoftKinetics, Sony, Stemmer Imaging, SVS Vistek, Teledyne DALSA, The Imaging Source, Toshiba Teli, TowerJazz, Viimagic, Vieworks, Vision Components, Viscom, Vitronic, VR Magic, Wenglor, WLCSP, Ximea, X-Fab, 1st Vision and more.