29th October 2009 – RTLS Market set to increase to $2.7bn

RTLS Market set to increase to $2.7bn

Real Time Locating Systems (RTLS) are electronic systems that are intended to locate small electronic devices on people or things at any time. There are many situations calling for RTLS, particularly now that it has become affordable and the mobile devices that are sensed have, in many cases, become small and convenient. In 2008, there were 50 RTLS suppliers, rising to 200 in 2013, reflecting the market growth from $145 Million in 2008 to $2.7 Billion in 2018.

The RTLS value chain mainly revolves around small portable tags, almost always battery powered, interrogators, sophisticated software and system integration. However, other items of hardware are often needed and facilities management, training, support, legacy integration and other services are often involved. IDTechEx find that tags have become a larger part of RTLS cost of ownership by value. They were around 20% in past years but now they are around 36%. This is because schemes will become bigger, with more tags per interrogator and eventually even some disposable tags. There will also be add on and replacement tags for existing schemes. Tags becoming more sophisticated, sometimes with displays, sensors etc.

Most suppliers in the RTLS value chain are in the US where by far the largest market is situated. However, the number of European suppliers is growing rapidly and there will be significant growth in suppliers in East Asia within five years, with interesting developments in Australia and South Africa that appear in some of the case studies we analyze in this report. The full range of RTLS technologies and systems are analyzed, including:

• Wi-Fi Ultra Wide Band (UWB)
• Proprietary and standardised RF systems at UHF, GHz
• Infra-red
• Ultrasound
• Zigbee
• GPS, GSM

Source: IDTechEx Report