General-purpose machine-vision market will recover and grow briskly

JULY 19--According to a new ARC Advisory Group (Dedham, MA) study, the worldwide market for general-purpose machine vision (GPMV) for manufacturing industries is expected to grow at a healthy compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.9% over the next five years. The market was $860 million in 2001 and is forecasted to be greater than $1.3 billion in 2006.

OEMs who once designed their own machine-vision systems now prefer GPMV-based systems. Rapid advancement in technologies on many fronts makes it impractical for OEMs to internally develop leading-edge machine vision systems. "In manufacturing, the growth of GPMV will be rapid as pricing continues to fall, new models improve their ease-of-use, and applications become more demanding. These factors allow GPMV systems to provide significantly lower total cost of ownership," according to ARC senior analyst Himanshu Shah, the principal author of ARC's General-Purpose Machine Vision for Manufacturing Industries Worldwide Outlook, Market Analysis & Forecast Through 2006.

While growth rates in the leading industries have slowed, higher growth is projected in many other industries that have begun to adopt machine-vision solutions. Significant revenues will be generated from the leading industries as well as from the food & beverage and pharmaceutical & cosmetic industries during the five-year forecast period.

ARC's study includes detailed discussions of market size, segmentations, analysis, and forecasts, while providing background information concerning industry structure and supplier business profiles. In addition to quantitative assessments, the study also identifies key strategic issues that will have a future impact on this market. Additional information on this study can be found at www.arcweb.com/arcweb/advisory/Studies/Auto/gpmv.asp.