HMI software: Global market to hit $1 billion by 2010

The global human-machine interface (HMI) software market will hit nearly a billion dollars by 2010, a recent ARC Advisory Group study shows. “Over the last two years,” said ARC research director Craig Resnick, “HMI software has been propelled into applications that have previously been custom or proprietary. This has caused unprecedented market growth…and we expect the momentum to continue.”

In 2005, the market totaled more than $650 million, outperforming the industrial automation market and growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) projected at more than 9% over the next five years, reports ARC. The market research and analysis firm predicts the HMI software market will experience double or near double-digit growth over the next two years, with growth slowing over the following three years. HMI software services should grow faster than the total market over the next five years, ARC adds.

“The last two years have been witness to growth rates near 20%,” said ARC analyst Stefan Surpitski, principal author of the research report, Human machine interface software worldwide outlook . “The corresponding effect on suppliers’ market shares has been equally dramatic as some of the players shuffle positions in what has become a market separated by thousands of dollars,” he also noted.

The ARC report points out that numerous changes are taking place in the HMI software market. One trend is that users of worldwide factory automation and enterprise computing solutions are placing higher value on the information provided by the asset than on the asset itself. The challenge to manufacturers lies in choosing which software and information platforms will keep them competitive in the long and short terms, the analysis found.

In addition, ARC findings showed that Asia Pacific and Latin American markets will be the fastest growing areas for HMI software, with CAGRs hovering in the low- to mid-teens. The growth is attributed to greenfield installations. An additional market driver affecting HMI software market growth is its role in enabling plant-wide interoperability. Sales, predicts ARC, will grow as a result of the release of OPC Unified Architecture, a series of specifications for moving data and information from the plant floor to the enterprise.

To read more about this research from ARC Advisory Group, click here .

—Control Engineering Daily News DeskEdited by Jeanine Katzel , senior editor