Like many of us, industries also have children, newly conceived organisms – market segments – that wend their way through infancy, adolescence, and finally, into full maturity. In my company’s line of work, we provide plans and strategies to more than 700 corporations to help them build their new businesses. But we first have to know what the infant looks like, its unique abilities, if any, and its potential strengths.

There are a number of new kids who have been fed their vitamins and are at various stages of growth in the video surveillance market. But how will the industry respond in nurturing these children for a bright future?

Transportation Market Is Expected to Grow the Fastest

Video manufacturers across the board forecast that the core market for video surveillance systems (the commercial market) will grow by 81 percent between 2002 and 2007, an annual average of 16 percent.

In the meantime, federal facilities are predicted to grow at a pace (21 percent annually) that matches commercial facilities as the No. 1 market in the video surveillance industry.

But the traffic and transportation market is expected to grow even faster. This market is expected to grow up to 25 percent per year due to increasing traffic problems on America’s highways and security procedures now being implemented at airports, railroad stations, bus terminals and even downtown areas, where thousands of people walk each day.

With residential security, manufacturers expect this market to virtually explode by 2007, with a growth rate of 37 percent per year. In fact, at one recent residential systems show, at least one exhibiting monitoring company was signing up dealers for a new video monitoring program, which would cost residents $80 a month.

While $960 a year sounds expensive for a monitoring service, there are already homeowners who are spending 20 times that, and more, for audio/ video, lighting, HVAC, drapery and other home systems. The market is small, but it has huge growth potential.

The Time Is Right to Enter These Young Markets

All these market segment estimates take into consideration the situation in Iraq; the threat of terrorism; advances in video technology to provide a more versatile range of security services; and video pricing that’s exceptionally competitive, and represents one of the best buys of security systems. As these situations change, so will the forecasts.

Risk is involved for sure. Helping to raise a video monitoring child might be considered a threat to a mature traditional alarm monitoring program. But children inevitably grow. There’s no stopping it. We wish you good luck in deciding which ones to adopt.

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