Real-Time Location Services: Technologies and Global Markets

Report Highlights

The global market for real time location services/systems should grow from $3.7 billion in 2019 to reach $10.6 billion by 2024 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.6% for the period of 2019-2024.

Report Includes

• 71 tables
• A descriptive study of technologies and global markets for the real time location system or services (RTLS)
• Analyses of global market trends with data from 2018, estimates for 2019, and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2024
• Assessment of widespread application markets of RTLS technologies across major geographical regions – North America, Europe, APAC, South America and MEA
• Information on market dynamics, regulatory landscape, trend analysis and mergers and acquisitions within the global ICT industry
• Patent analysis covering all types of RTLS solutions and their allotments by major assignee types
• Company profiles of market leading players, including AIRTLS, Cerner Corp., Midmark Corp., Sonitor Technologies AS and Zebra Technologies Corp.

Report Scope

BCC Research defines real-time location system or services (RTLS) as a system that uses either of a number of technologies (such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ultrawideband, RFID, and GPS) to detect the current (real-time) geolocation of a target. At times, a real-time location system can use a combination of different technologies to achieve a result with higher accurancy (e.g. GPS combined with Wi-Fi). In real-time location system, the target that is tracked can be anything from a vehicle to an item in a manufacturing plant or logistics to a person (as in healthcare space).

The global market for real-time location services is witnessing strong growth across geographies. RTLS-capable products are used in an ever-increasing number of sectors including supply chain management (SCM), logistics, transportation, healthcare, military, retail, recreation, postal and courier services, as well as education space. The developed regions – North America and Europe (especially Western Europe) are the largest market for RTLS. However, APAC is witnessing the strongest growth and is expected to significantly increase its market share in the coming years.

The scope of this report covers the global market for real-time location service technologies for various end-user application industry. The market is broken down by type, technologies, application, end use industry, and region, which are further discussed in detail. Revenue forecasts from 2019 to 2024 are given for each market segments, and regional market with estimated values derived from manufacturers’ total revenues.

The report also includes a discussion of the major players across each regional market. Further, it explains the major drivers and regional dynamics of the market and current trends within the industry.

The report concludes with a special focus on the vendor landscape and includes detailed profiles of the major vendors.

Detailed Inclusions and exclusions:

• For the purpose of this report, real-time location system or services (RTLS) is defined as a system/ solution/ service that uses either of a number of technologies (such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ultrawideband, RFID, and GPS) to detect the current (real-time) geolocation of a target (where the target can be anything from a vehicle to an item in a manufacturing plant to a person).

• For the purpose of this report, both indoor real time positioning and outdoor real time positiong are considered as RTLS. Hence, both indoor RTLS (which includes RFID, BLE, Wi-Fi, UWB, etc., and outdoor RTLS (mainly global positioning system/GPS, but also includes some usage of RFID, Wi-Fi, etc.). are within the scope of this report.

• RFID includes active RFID, passive RFID and battery-assisted passive (BAP) RFID. While active RFID and BAP RFID are actual RTLS, passive RFID can be used for very simplistic locating systems (can be read through at choke points) and hence is also considered within the scope of the report.

• The report includes other technologies that be used for RTLS such as infrared, ultrasound, ZigBee in the “Others” segment within the technology categorization in the report. However, these technologies are not discussed in detail as their market share is expected to be very low.

• The report includes hardware, software as well as services revenue of the companies active in the global Real-Time Location Services market.

• In hardware, the report covers various types of hardware such as tags, readers, etc.

• The report excludes the revenue from stand-alone service providers (such as educational services, consulting, maintenance, etc.).

• The report carefully considers companies that are not actual manufacturers and/or service providers and may just rebrand the product and sell it in the market (white labelling), so as to prevent double counting of revenue.

• Revenue forecasts from 2019 to 2024 are given for each segment and regional market, with estimated values are derived from manufacturers’ total revenues).

• Location based services (LBS) is similar but different market and hence is out of scope of this report. This report identifies LBS as a different market, wherein, LBS is defined as location-based services that are offered through a mobile phone by taking into account the device’s geographical location. LBS also uses real-time geo-data from a mobile device or smartphone (using either cellular tower coverage, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth) to provide information, entertainment or security. However, the key difference between LBS and RTLS is that LBS uses a user’s mobile phone and its real-time geo data, RTLS uses a tag, badge, or sender that transmits real-time data (i.e., a hardware for real time data).

The report begins by introducing the reader to how the market has evolved over time and how various factors are impacting the market. The report then proceeds to identify the following:

• Primary forces with a direct impact on the markets.
• Secondary forces that have an indirect impact.
• Key funding and financing in this space, which are particularly supportive for new entrants.
• Some key challenges that may hinder the growth of this market.
• Key trends visible in the market.
• Important applications of real-time location services, along with key technology segments.
• Demand in the North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (MEA) and Asia-Pacific (APAC).

Analyst Credentials

Ritam Biswas has more than 13 years of experience in the market research and financial research space and has written and consulted on several research and advisory projects in various technology verticals. He has worked as a team leader and lead analyst in several technology businesses and has written numerous reports in areas such as disruptive technology, innovative and new technologies, advanced end-user computing, cloud security, virtualization security, mobile security and deep packet inspection.