Issue Fall 2011

22 million digital signs by 2015

Jose Avalos is retail sector general manager for Intel Corp. in the Intelligent Systems Group, leading Intel's worldwide retail & digital signage businesses. His group is responsible for delivering Intel's Intelligent Retail & Digital Signage platforms, software and services, and initiatives fueling industry growth.

Getting a handle on the real size of the digital signage (DS) industry is a challenge. Most analysts focus on specific geographic areas or niche sectors, making it hard to get comparable data on a global basis. Another complication: in most markets, 80 percent of the digital signage integrators are local companies and often span the audio/visual and IT worlds.

The sizing challenge: When Intel first tried to construct a worldwide market model for digital signage in 2009, we utilized our best estimate of 2008 actuals and assumed a 26 percent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR): this led us to estimate 8 million media players and correspondingly 16 million digital signs by 2015. I first discussed this market model at the Digital Signage Expo (DSE) in early 2010 and over the following months many analysts converged on these numbers. However, in mid-2009, we felt (and most analysts agreed) that the digital signage market would actually grow at a 38-42 percent CAGR over the next few years. But, because digital signage was a new focus at Intel and our market model is used for factory loading and revenue commits, we decided to stay with the 26 percent CAGR. The take away that was widely reported was 8 million media players and 16 million digital signs by 2015.

Read More