The Biggest Market Forecast for the Video Surveillance Industry

Business people love market sizing numbers and the bigger the market size, regardless of the accuracy, the better. To that end, in an IBD survey of the video surveillance industry [link no longer available], ABI Research [link no longer available] is now projecting global video surveillance sales to be $41 Billion USD in 2014, up from $19.4 Billion USD in 2009.

By contrast, these projections are down significantly compared to ABI's numbers published in 2007 [link no longer available]. In 2007, ABI projected global video surveillance sales to be $46 Billion USD by 2013. Effectively, these new numbers reduce the total forecasted market size by 22%.

Be Careful About Using Such Numbers

Most companies use these type of numbers to prove to outsiders that video surveillance is worthwhile and important. That's reasonable though you risk setting unrealistic expectations.

The real problem is when these numbers are used for strategic planning purposes. For instance, ABI cites retail as a big growth market driving these aggressive growth numbers. Really?? Retail.

Also, ABI does not specialize video surveillance. For instance, I have seen both ABI and IMS present at conferences. The ABI presentation was very shallow and did not adequately examine or demonstrate understanding of key elements in the business. By contrast, the IMS presentation was far more sophisticated and detailed.

Also, the ABI numbers are so big because ABI is including anything related to video surveillance, including installation, service, etc. By contrast, the numbers IMS usually publishes are manufacturer sales only. If you are going to use these numbers, make sure you note the different categorizations.