AutoID & Data Capture Blog




New Report: 2016 Global Market for OEM Barcode Scan Engines

by Shahroze Husain | 02/27/2017

VDC recently published a report focused on OEM Barcode Scan Engines. The following blog highlights some of our thoughts on this market and its potential.

The global OEM scan engine market grew 6% year over year from 2015 to 2016 and is expected to grow to $362M by 2020, according to VDC latest study. VDC defines OEM barcode scan engines as products that are embedded in devices to enable and facilitate enterprise-grade barcode scanning. Asia-Pacific is the largest market for OEM scan engines in terms of sales led by purchases from regional scanner and mobile computer vendors and will grow at an expected 9.6% CAGR through the forecast period. The Americas and EMEA will grow at slower rates through 2020 driven by growing investments by manufacturers of automation, mobilization and self-service solutions.

Scan engines are being deployed into various devices beyond traditional data capture solutions like handheld scanners and mobile computers with manufacturers of medical devices, heavy industrial machinery, access control devices, lottery terminals and consumer appliances increasingly integrating/embedding barcode scan engines to bring data/image capture capabilities to their OEM devices such as the Tassimo coffee marker from Bosch. Data and image capture use cases are helping create entirely new experiences and business models such as employee free retail stores (Naraffar and  Amazon GO), fully automated warehouses (UPS’s Worldport) as well as smart solutions for consumers. VDC believes that these trends along with growing demand for portable medical devices, rising investments in self-service solutions as well as increased use of traditional AIDC solutions such as hand held scanners and POS scanners in the traditional retail/distribution and supply chain markets will drive the adoption for OEM scan engine solutions through 2020.

However, even with promising opportunities, the global competitive landscape of the OEM scan engine market still consists of a small number of players. Market leaders include broad-based AIDC vendors such as Zebra, Honeywell and Opticon who supply their core technologies to the wider AIDC hardware community and beyond while specialized component vendors such as JADAK and Microscan focus on developing solutions primarily for the life sciences and health care space. The participation of emerging Asia-based vendors such as Fujian Newland, Zebex and Marson Technologies place significant pressures on market leaders through their introduction of innovative engines and price-competitive offerings. The vendors listed in this report include:

  • Code
  • Fujian Newland Computer Co. Ltd.
  • Honeywell
  • JADAK Technologies
  • Manatee Works (Cognex)
  • Marson Technology Co. Ltd.
  • Microscan
  • OPTO Electronics Co. Ltd.
  • Scandit
  • Zebex
  • Zebra Technologies

Other key insights from VDC’s latest report include:

  • Laser’s light flickering even in the OEM engine world
  • Lines between barcode scanning and machine vision continue to blur
  • Channel development still in its nascent stages for OEM scan engines
  • Decoded units generating significant interest
  • Software presents an attractive opportunity for growth

For more information and additional insights about the OEM Barcode Scan Engine Market, please feel free to download the Executive Brief to our report or contact us to learn how to gain access to the full report at info@vdcresearch.com.