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Forecast Report on Global Real-Time Location Systems Market

Reviewed

Jul 7 2014

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Global Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS) Market 2013 - 2020: Wi-Fi, RFID, Infrared, Ultrasound, UWB, Zigbee" report to their offering.

A Real-Time Location System refers to a location tracking solution that enables enterprises to identify, track, and manage their key assets such as equipment, tools, and personnel in real time by placing a tag/badge on them. The tags affixed to the asset send signals to the location readers/sensors periodically and utilize wireless technologies such as RF signals, Wi-Fi, Infrared, Ultrasound, Zigbee, and others for communication between tags and readers. These readers then communicate with the middleware/software platform, which analyzes the data received and correlates useful information that improves the operational efficiency and staff productivity in an enterprise.

Some of the major applications of Real-Time Location Systems solutions include asset tracking & management, personnel & staff tracking, patient tracking, staff safety & work flow automation, and environment sensing & monitoring, among others. Presently, active RFID and Wi-Fi based solutions are the two major market shareholders in the global market. Wi-Fi based solutions are more popular in healthcare environments, whereas RFID is mainly being employed in industrial environments. Both these technologies hold a very promising future in the coming years as well. Moreover, UWB and Zigbee are the emerging technologies with a tremendous market potential, mainly due to advantages such as high location precision & accuracy and a long battery life.

The main driving factors propelling the tremendous growth of the market include the need of optimum resource utilization through the efficient asset tracking in real time, increasing standardization, declining cost of tags, technological advancements, escalating Real-Time Location Systems applications in numerous industry sectors, and government support & funding. However, factors that are hindering the growth of this market are high upfront costs & budgetary constraints and lack of awareness among customers regarding RTLS benefits. Among all industry verticals, healthcare contributed to the largest market share in 2013; however, industrial manufacturing and process industries (mining, oil & gas) are expected to grow explosively in the upcoming future.

In the geographical analysis, Americas accounted for the largest market share in terms of the market value as well as the RTLS deployments followed by Europe. In developed economies, the technological advancements regarding RTLS tags, and emerging technologies such as UWB & Zigbee are the major drivers for the Real-Time Location Systems growth. The market is still in its nascent stages in developing regions such as APAC & ROW; however, these regions are estimated to be the fastest-growing markets in terms of traditional Real-Time Location Systems technologies such as active RFID and Wi-Fi in the forecast period from 2013 to 2020 mainly due to high industrial growth and rising customer awareness.

Some of the major players in the market include: