2008 AIA Study Shows Dramatic Market Changes

By Paul Kellett, AIA Director – Market Analysis

Do machine vision product markets change much year to year? AIA’s latest market study answers that question with an emphatic “yes”. 

Largely because of the business cycle, market growth was much different in 2007 than 2006. In every MV product market, sales volumes exhibited anemic growth, and in 2008 that growth is expected to weaken even further.

For MV companies, the hard reality is that it is necessary to battle even more intensely to win sales. In these challenging times, where the margin for error in decision-making is particularly thin, sales success will therefore require more than ever accurate, up-to-date market intelligence, including an understanding of economic impacts on MV product markets.

The weakness in MV sales of course reflects a downturn in the economy, particularly the economy of the United States. For this reason, the newly released AIA study includes an in-depth but clearly understandable discussion of the economy within an all-new chapter. 

In addition, the 2008 market study contains seven other, all-new chapters to further aid the reader’s understanding of current marketplace developments:

• The Executive Summary presents the evolving “big picture” of machine vision markets 
• The North American Industry chapter explains how well North American MV companies are faring in terms of worldwide sales. 
• The North American Machine Vision Markets chapter summarizes annual growth and market size for North American product markets 
• The Special Topics chapter discusses selected, important MV topics
• The Chinese MV Market chapter assesses opportunities and obstacles in China
• The Indian MV Market chapter assesses opportunities and obstacles in India
• The Study Conclusions chapter explains the major significance of study findings to avoid overwhelming the reader with a mountain of data.

Still other changes offered by the 2008 study include:

• Latest, actual sales data and analysis for 2007 by product market
• New sales forecasts by product market for 2008 – 2012
• Reorganization of chapters for even easier understanding and retention by the reader
• Navigation aids to enable the reader to fast-forward to the desired section
• Three-year area charts in the product market chapters to detect and show trends on the product feature level as a means of ascertaining evolving customer preferences
• New estimates of regional and world MV product markets

All in all, the new AIA market study offers a fresh, comprehensive and in-depth view of MV product markets, as they react to major economic and market forces.

The new study, which is far more affordable than all MV studies of comparable size, consists of 17 chapters, 237 pages and over 170 data exhibits with clear analysis and commentary. 

AIA members purchasing the study also obtain gratis the new AIA MV Financial Study, an examination and analysis of the financial health of the MV industry. Non-members can also obtain this study for $500.

For more information or to order the study, visit www.MachineVisionOnline.org or call (734) 994-6088.