Access Control Industry in Numbers

The world of access control is changing fast. Standards, sustainability, mobile and the cloud are continuing to shape the future of the industry. And though 2020 certainly brought a lot of uncertainty, it did not have an negative impact on the access control market that many may have expected. Rather, it presented all sorts of new opportunities for those working in the space. That’s why we would like to highlight some of the main studies of the industry and take a closer look at them.

Growth, trends, COVID-19 impact on the access control industry

The latest report from Marketsandmarkets on the access control market includes the suggested impact of COVID-19 on the sector, including global forecasts to 2025 projecting a growth from 8.6 billion in 2020 to 12.8 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 8.2%. The main factors that are driving the growth are increasing deployment of wireless security systems and rising adoption of IoT-based security systems with cloud computing platforms. ¹

Key cards are still popular in the field of access control, but the trend is going towards biometrics. Biometric readers are expected to witness the highest growth rate during the forecast period. The market for biometric reader-based access control systems has been categorized into fingerprint recognition, palm recognition, iris recognition, face recognition and voice recognition. Another study by Assa Abloy highlights the importance of mobile credentials. The trusted identity, a unique ID number, is held within the smartphone. End customers are rather choosing mobile credentials over tags or cards when it comes to access control. 39% of end customers want to replace traditional access cards with their smartphone within the next two years. ² There are several reasons for the increasing use of mobile credentials. One of them is convenience and flexibility. Employees and visitors no longer have to carry separate cards or tags, and it’s becoming the norm to carry the smartphone everywhere.

Looking at the studies above, it needs to be said that the access control market is grossly underestimated. It is far more complicated than it is reported. One of the problems is that the industry is reported only as a high security market. This doesn’t reflect the actual mainstream market. The industry is in the midst of going mainstream. Another issue is that the industry focussed on hardware rather than software. It’s all about the equipment itself, but the industry is being forced to appreciate software as well. Lee Odess criticises these numbers and explains the context—way better than we could ever.