The Top 10 Companies in Data Acquisition

A recent market study from Venture Development Corporation (VDC), Data Acquisition Products: Global Market Demand Analysis, found the worldwide combined market for external chassis/modules and plug-in analog I/O boards totaled about US$880 million in 2007, and is expected to exceed $1.1 billion in 2012.

The external chassis/module market is much the larger, and is forecast to be the fastest growing. The study found it also to be much more fragmented that the plug-in analog I/O board market.

The leading worldwide suppliers of the data acquisition products under study, were ranked in descending order of 2007 shipment, as detailed below.

External Chassis/Modules

1. Campbell Scientific

2. National Instruments

3. Hottinger Baldwin Messtechnik

4. Yokogawa Electric

5. Sony

Campbell Scientific had an estimated 8.1percent share of the worldwide external chassis and module market in 2007, and the top five vendors together accounted for only an estimated 27.4percent. Campbell supplies data loggers and standalone data acquisition systems, with most for scientific applications. Lesser shares are shipped for industrial maintenance and off-line production/QC applications.

National Instruments, the second largest vendor, supplies USB modules and other PC front ends. The vast majority of these shipments are for on-line discrete and process manufacturing applications. Lesser shipments are for education, military/aerospace and off-line production testing/QC applications.

Plug-In Analog I/O Boards

1. National Instruments

2. GE Fanuc Automation

3. Agilent Technologies

4. Advantech

5. Pentek

In contrast, the worldwide plug-in analog I/O board market is much more concentrated. National Instruments had an estimated 37.3 percent worldwide market share in the plug-in analog I/O boards, and second place GE Fanuc Automation a 12.1 percent share. The top five had an estimated combined share of 67.7 percent.

National Instruments supplies ISA, PCI, PCMCIA, PXI, PXI Express and PCI Express plug-in analog I/O boards, with most for on-line discrete and process manufacturing applications. Lesser shares are shipped for education, military/aerospace, and off-line production testing/QC applications.

GE Fanuc Automation supplies PCI and VME plug-in analog I/O boards. A vast majority of these shipments are for military/aerospace applications. Lesser shares are for off-line production testing/QC, and on-line process and discrete manufacturing use.

Success factors

As part of the study, VDC asked vendors what they consider to be keys to their ongoing success. Answers varied. Overall, the most identified factors were:

• Experience in the data acquisition industry

• Offering easy-to-use products

• Extended customer service and support terms

• Continuous product improvement programs

• Products with high reliability/quality

• Products emphasizing flexibility to support a growing range of applications within the same platform(s) and

• Expert pre- and post-sales technical support

Beyond these, many factors were identified by the vendors reflecting their various positions in the market. In addition, it is interesting that among the cited key factors, achieving competitive prices was not among the most mentioned. Many factors in addition to price are important for success in this business, says VDC.