North America will lead card-based access control

AUNDH, India—Future Market Insights, a research firm based here, projects that the card-based electronic access control market in North America will grow from around $2 billion in 2014 to $3 billion by 2020, with a CAGR between 7 and 8 percent.

“[The] North American region is expected to lead the global card-based electronic access control system market among all other regions; whereas, the Asia Pacific region is expected to show the highest CAGR in coming five years,” Future Market Insights senior consultant Pallavi Guhe told Security Systems News.

The 2014 global value for this market was around $6 billion, Guhe said. It will rise to around $11 billion by 2020, creating a global CAGR between 10 and 12 percent, she said.

The report covers two types of access control cards: proximity cards and smart cards. Guhe declined to comment on which technology is the most prominent currently or in the future.

The report also examines the market by end-user types, which include “government, commercial, industrial, residential and others,” Guhe said.

“Commercial and industrial end-user segments are expected to lead the global market by value. Additionally, these segments are expected to show the leading growth rates for the coming five years as compared to other end-user segments,” she said.

Financial institutions, healthcare centers, and pharmaceutical sectors are other applications that are increasing demand for card access control system, said Guhe.

“Integration with cloud systems is a big opportunity for this market,” Guhe said. “We all know that cloud services have a very bright future, and if the access control systems will be integrated with these services, it will also … benefit this market growth.”

New and emerging technologies will have an effect on the card-based access control market. “Increasing investment in infrastructure by government [and] by private sectors of major economies, and increasing safety concerns … especially from crime and terrorist activities are driving the market growth,” she said.

“There are a few restraints/challenges associated with the market growth, such as its high cost,” Guhe said. “There is also a big challenge of lack of awareness.” Lack of awareness is an issue in developing economies such as India and China, but not in the United States and the U.K.

Panasonic, Siemens, Johnson Controls, Cisco, Tyco and Honeywell are some of the key vendors within the global electronic access control systems market, Guhe said.

There are no signs of market saturation, she said, “This is a [new] technology and many manufacturers are focusing to develop high-tech products for card-based electronic access control systems.”

Outside of the report, using mobile devices for access control has been a competitor in the market space. Asked for comment on this, Guhe said, “Smartphone-based access control systems have different applications [from] card-based electronic access control systems. … Yes they are competing, but still they have their different potential.”