A new market study from IMS Research forecasts that the Americas market for electronic physical access control equipment will reach $925.1 million in 2011, with a forecast compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.3 percent.
One of the key trends driving the growth is the replacement of 125kHz proximity readers with 13.56MHz smart card readers, according to the report. This trend is projected to accelerate during the next two years following the introduction of the U.S. government mandate HSPD-12.
“In order to comply with HSPD-12, government facilities will need to replace their existing access control credentials with Personal Identity Verification (PIV) cards,” says IMS Research analyst Paul Everett. “They will also need to replace their card readers with FIPS 201-compliant smart card readers. This will lead to tremendous demand for access controls over the next two years as government facilities replace their existing access controls to meet the Oct. 27, 2008 deadline.”
The impact of HSPD-12 will also have a knock-on effect within the commercial sector with access control back in the focus of organizations throughout the Americas, according to the report. Additionally, the move to IP-based access control systems, wireless technologies, integration with other security systems and the convergence of physical and logical access control are all forecast to drive growth during the next five years.
