PLC Market Shares

Is there an orangization that publishes an online report about the worldwide and regional market share of PLC and automation manufacturers? I'm trying to do some research for a customer proposal.

This post never really answered the question

Thanks in advance.

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Is there an orangization that publishes an online report about the worldwide and regional market share of PLC and automation manufacturers?

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The short answer is not for free.

There are two potential sources for that type of information, either from the people who do the actual research or from the people who pay to have it done.

The companies that do market research get paid by the people who commission the surveys. That is generally the people who are trying to sell their products into those markets. The market research firms are bound by the confidentiality agreements they have to sign in order to get the commission to do the research, so they can't publish it. It should come as no surprise that the people who pay for the market research choose not to give the results of that research away to their competitors.

Thanks, actually I think I may have found an inside track to some of this information. I will post it if/when I can.

Cheers,

$

Curious

Market share of what exactly?

Market share studies can be bought. Several thousands $'s...

I saw something like a bar chart in Control Engineering a while back. If I remember correctly I think AB, GE, Siemans & Omron were the big market leaders AD was a distant 5th, and then there were "others".

I thought it went Omron, Siemens, AB

Ok I found this: http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=142123

I guess the market shares vary greatly from market to market, (Asia, North America, Europe etc...) Everybody here knows I'm a big AD fan, so maybe my memory was somewhat skewed by my pre-disposition...

TWControls said:

I thought it went Omron, Siemens, AB

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That is why I asked the above question.

GE and Siemens both do 100's of million of dollars worth of sales.

AB in contrast does about 25 million.

I do not know what Omron or AD do in sales.

GE, Siemens, and Omron all sell diverse products which may not be relevant to the automation or industrial field. AD is branch of a company that has plcs but has to supplement their sales with other brands.

Just curious, how do you obtain the information that will provide sales info just for automation products? What exactly would be defined as an automation product? Do you limit it to plcs? If just plcs then do you count the number of plcs sold or the money involved in the sales? How would you define which would tell you the best market share?

Still curious, what bearing does market share have on deciding the choice of products used? Modicon (now Schneider Group) invented what (AB named) the plc.

More curious, what does market share have to do with local supply, local support, purchasing power, ROI, ....as mentioned before, location, location, location.

Of all the reasons to purchase from a company, in my personal opinion, the last would be how much sales they have pertaining to any product(s).

rsdoran said:

AB in contrast does about 25 million.

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I can't believe that AB only does 25M in business, if so I am a much bigger customer than I thought!! Where did you get this number?

This is from Rockwells' 2006 fourth quarter and business year end report:

Control Systems

Control Systems fourth quarter sales were $1,188.8 million, an increase of 8 percent compared to $1,104.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2005. The effect of currency translation added nearly 2 percentage points to the growth rate. From a regional perspective, sales in the U.S. increased 3 percent in the 2006 fourth quarter, while non-U.S. sales increased 10 percent, excluding the effect of currency translation. Growth in the quarter was paced by continued strength in Latin America, emerging Asia, and Europe. Our Logix platform business grew by 12 percent in the quarter. Segment operating earnings were $228.6 million, an increase of 19 percent compared to $191.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2005. Earnings increased due to higher volume, productivity efforts, lower restructuring costs, and price, partially offset by inflation. Control Systems return on sales was 19.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006 compared to 17.3 percent in 2005.

Sales for the full year were $4,551.3 million, an increase of 10 percent compared to sales of $4,123.6 million in 2005. Sales of our Logix platform business grew about 20 percent. Segment operating earnings were $873.1 million, an increase of 15 percent compared to $756.9 million in 2005. Control Systems return on sales for the year was 19.2 percent compared to 18.4 percent in 2005.

I was at an information seminar for Profibus from Siemens about a year ago. During that seminar they claimed that Profibus had somewhere around 70% or worldwide installed base. Modbus was next and then all of the Rockwell offerings.

I thought that this was pretty high, but what is "installed base". I this the meters of cable installed?, is this the number of nodes?, is this the number of independant control systems? Who knows, who cares. When I go shopping for a car I look for reliability, features, service (support), and price. Why should a PLC be any different?

Try billions. Where do you get your information?

rsdoran said:

GE and Siemens both do 100's of million of dollars worth of sales.

AB in contrast does about 25 million.

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http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=ROK&annual

Of all the reasons to purchase from a company, in my personal opinion, the last would be how much sales they have pertaining to any product(s).

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Unfortunatly, popularity often equates into marketing by name recogonition. On more then a few occasions I found it necessary to tie the threads togeather for prospective customers; "Who is PLC Direct? What are you pushing on us?" "PLC Direct is owned by Koyo who was/is the actual manufacture of the VERY popular GE Series One, TI 305 etc..." "Oh..that's OK then.."

Have never seen a Moeller PLC and don't recall any discussion about them here. After checking out their website I was curious if any posters here are using them or have used them in the past.

My first PLC was Moeller.but it was in 1988.
Here in Israel they sale and support only the Easy
which I used few times .

The current issue of Control Engineering magazine, lists the worldwide PLC market for 2005 at $7.5 billion, with an expected compounded annual growth rate of 6.1% over the next 5 years. Putting the total market at $10 billion by 2010. So all of the major players are in the billions in sales. So much for PC based controls being the death of the PLC.