Cameras are Good, Apps are Better

With the upcoming Beijing Olympics promising some of the most stringent security measures since the Spartans were in charge, Frost & Sullivan has been taking a look at China. No surprise, the video surveillance camera sector is exploding with Chinese camera expenditures expected to double over the next few years.

New analysis from the consulting firm, Chinese Video Surveillance Camera Markets, finds that the market earned revenues of $213.8 million in 2006 and estimates this to reach $484.3 million in 2013.

The news isn’t all good, however. The report also highlights the challenges facing camera manufacturers despite this growth. These include narrow margins due to high competition and dependency on big suppliers for chips and sensors, which affects production capacity utilization. That’s really true all over…much better to build security applications, I think, than cameras these days. In addition to avoiding the “squeeze” faced by hardware manufactures today, as new application technologies disrupt stagnant hardware markets…even create new ones…we should see health growth AND margins for foreseeable future.