North American access control market approaches $5 billion

DALLAS—The North American access control market will rise to about $5 billion in 2020, up from $2 billion in 2014, while the global market will reach $10.3 billion, according to a Marketsandmarkets report.

“The North American market has a very strong growth rate,” said Deepankar Bose, Marketsandmarkets team leader for the project. He cited a CAGR of 11.1 percent until 2020.

North America, which has the largest market share and will continue to hold that status in 2020, accounts for about 34 percent of the current global market and will increase to between 35 percent and 36 percent in 2020, Bose told Security Systems News.

The North American market could experience market saturation in five to 10 years, he said.

The report covers four product types—cards and readers, biometrics, controllers and management software. “Currently the biometrics market is biggest in North America and that trend will be continued to 2020,” Bose said. “After biometrics … cards and readers will [also] have a good growth in North America until 2020.”

Integrating separate technologies will be a main market trend, Bose said. For example, a biometrics system could be combined with cloud services or IT security systems. Mobile access—smartphones, tablets and other devices for access control—will be another notable technology.

High crime rates, including cyberattacks and terror attacks, and the adoption of access control in U.S. and Canadian governmental agencies are among the factors driving the growth in North America, Bose said.

Increasing access control in governmental buildings will be a key market opportunity for integrators, according to Bose.

Yet, the commercial sector will be the most prominent in North America among other vertical markets examined in the report: residential, military and defense, government, industrial, healthcare and education. That's because the term “commercial” applies to airports, hospitality, retail, enterprises and financial buildings, Marketsandmarkets research analyst Swapnil Nanir said.

The next largest sectors are industrial, followed by military and defense, Bose said.

Honeywell and AMAG are top vendors for access control, while Crossmatch and Morpho are prominent biometrics vendors, Bose said.

In developing regions, such as the Asia-Pacific region, lack of awareness is a potential problem, along with whether infrastructure can handle access control and the costs of the technology, Nanir said.

Cards and readers will be a prominent technology in the global market growth, Bose noted.

Price cutting is the main challenge for the global market, Bose said, though it will not likely affect the North American market.