Industry CEO Sentiment Strongly Upbeat for 2010 and Beyond

GIS/Geospatial industry worldwide growth is forecast to slow to 1%, down from 11% in 2008 and a whopping 17.4% in 2007 according to a just released study by Daratech, Inc., a Cambridge, Massachusetts market research firm. However, industry CEOs interviewed by Daratech were unanimous in their belief that growth consistent with the robust 11% cagr of the past six years would return in 2010.

North America has not been as adversely affected by the downturn as the rest of the world due to the on-going needs of homeland security and continuing investment in GIS, by the public sector. Growth in North America is forecast by Daratech to top 2.1%, more than twice the growth in Asia Pacific and five times the growth in Europe where investment in GIS/Geospatial technology has been hurt more severely by the current downturn as many European governments have cut back their geospatial technology purchases in anticipation of lower tax collections.

Perhaps the most dramatic slowdown in 2009 was in the private sector, which is forecast to shrink to $1.4 billion, down 0.7% from 2008. This downturn echoes the general pull back of the private sector from major additional investments in new IT technologies. At the same time public sector sales are expected to grow 4.1% to almost $957 million in 2009 reflecting this sectors continuing deployment of GIS technologies to all the services it offers.

In the Traditional GIS segment ESRI continues to have a dominant 30% market share, up from 29% in 2008 according to Daratech. Lead by its iconic president Jack Dangermond, ESRI has been a benchmark for new GIS technologies, philosophies and direction for the entire industry for more than 20 years, and indications are that it will continue to be so, says Daratech. Intergraph, the second largest player in the traditional segment is forecast by Daratech to have a 16% market share in 2009, up from 15% in 2008. Intergraph is remaking its entire business around a GIS philosophy, and as a GIS service provider Intergraph is likely to become even stronger in the years ahead. Third ranked is GE Energy, which is the market leader in the utilities market where it is forecast to have a 24% market share.

In the larger GIS/Geospatial market that includes data, geo-enabled engineering, GPS, photogrammetry and remote sensing MDA has a leading 21.8% share of the market. MDA’s strength is geospatial and engineering services for imaging, GIS, geology, weather and defense. The company’s sales are mostly to the homeland security and defense markets. ESRI, is second with a 15.7% share and Bentley Systems, the leading supplier of GIS/Geospatial AEC market software and services (where it has a 42.1% market share) is third. Bentley has frequently made the running in the geo-enabled engineering applications market and continues to demonstrate strong leadership in this area. However, Bentley can expect stronger competition from Autodesk, Intergraph and ESRI in the coming years, as this segment of the market may show greater than average growth, says Daratech.

Just released, Daratech’s study GIS/Geospatial Markets & Opportunities includes more than 1500 charts that cover both the private and public market segments for the years 2004 through 2009. It is available for purchase on Daratech’s web site.

[source: Daratech press release]