Services and Supervisory Software Drive Worldwide HMI Software Market Growth, Says ARC

The worldwide human machine interface (HMI) software and services market, which totaled over $926 million in 2007, will reach over $1,430 billion in 2012, outperforming the industrial automation market overall and growing at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 9.1% over the next five years, according to a new ARC Advisory Group study.

HMI software suppliers had their best regional development in Asia. However, North America and EMEA also experienced strong growth. The market growth was led by services and supervisory software. “HMI software suppliers are continuing to add services at an accelerated rate, driven by the end users’ and OEMs’ need for technical support, because manufacturers no longer have the personnel internally to provide the services,” according to ARC Research Director Craig Resnick.

“Also, Supervisory HMI software, which is used to support HMI software functionality, such as configuration, runtime, connectivity, control, and alarm management, had the fastest growth of any HMI software type. Growth in this segment indicates how HMI software suppliers are expanding their application space and it represents the direction that the HMI software market is heading over the next five years.”