Market For Indoor Location Predicted To Rise Substantially By 2019
By Ally Kutz, contributing writer
Research and Markets released its analysis of the indoor location market through 2019. The market is estimated to skyrocket from $597 million to $3.96 billion, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 46 percent from 2014 to 2019.
Another report, this one from MarketsandMarkets, estimates the market will grow from an estimated $935.05 million in 2014 to $4,424.1 million by 2019. This represents an estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36.5 percent from 2014 to 2019.
Because of the absence of satellite signals indoors, the indoor location technologies use GPS along with smartphone software to provide navigations services without complexities. These services include navigation in places such as malls, offices, airports, and casinos.
An Opus Research report “Mapping the Indoor Marketing Opportunity” explains the interest in this technology: “Marketers will increasingly be able to determine the real-world impact of digital advertising …. Offline analytics and indoor location will change the way retailers, venue owners, manufacturers, and brands think about operations, marketing, and the customer experience in general. In a few years we may look back and see the combination of smartphones and offline location awareness as a development nearly as radical and disruptive as the Internet itself has been.”
The Opus Research report is predicting “around $10 billion in spending to be touched or directly affected by indoor location” by 2018. These areas include hardware/IT, software licensing, coupon distribution, in-store merchandising and shopper marketing, and geofenced mobile advertising.
The report also points out there are a number of technologies that can deliver indoor location, including video cameras, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacons, sensors, magnetic field energy, acoustic/audio, and LED lighting. The report states, “It’s quite unlikely that, in the near term at least, a single dominant indoor-technology standard will emerge.” Depending on use case, budget, and specific needs, the approach can differ.