Remote monitoring market exceeds $29 billion in 2011

The world market for remote monitoring services was worth more than $29 billion in 2011, equivalent to $2.4 billion in recurring monthly revenues across the year, according to a recent study.

Source: IMS Research (IHS Inc.)

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According to IMS Research (recently acquired by IHS Inc.), the world market for remote monitoring services was worth more than $29 billion in 2011, equivalent to $2.4 billion in recurring monthly revenues (RMR) across the year. IMS Research also estimated that, in the same year, 54 million accounts, or customer locations, were provided with services such as alarm monitoring, remote video monitoring, physical access control and fire detection monitoring, and PERS (Personal Emergency Response Services).

Driven by its strong residential and commercial alarm monitoring markets, the U.S. market accounted for around 45% of world revenues. Other notable regional markets include Canada, the U.K., Spain, France, Japan, South Korea, China and Australia.

“The penetration of remote monitoring services varies significantly between different countries and regions,” commented report author and IMS Research analyst Niall Jenkins. “For example, the U.S. residential alarm monitoring market has a penetration of between 20% and 25% of all residential buildings, while the residential market in Germany was estimated to be less than 200,000 accounts.”

“There are a number of social and economic reasons for these regional differences,” continues Jenkins. “Perception of crime, comparative wealth, service pricing, and the isolation of the location can all drive the decision to remotely monitor a building. In less developed countries, the lower cost of manned guarding can also act to limit uptake. In extreme examples, a lack of trust in the police force can drive customers to include manned guard response in their service agreement, hence increasing the RMR generated on the account.”

IMS Research’s report on the remote monitoring service market focuses on regional and country markets across EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa), the Americas and Asia.