12 Jan 2017

Central and Eastern European Robotics Market Will Reach 4.2$ Billion in 2020, Fueled by New Use Cases and Expanding Presence of Major Vendors, According to IDC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Prague – Central and Eastern European (CEE) spending on robotics (including drones) and related services will grow from $2.5 billion in 2016 to more than $4.2 billion in 2020, according to the newly updated Worldwide Commercial Robotics Spending Guide from International Data Corporation (IDC). IDC expects that robotics revenue in the CEE region will post a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.2% over the 2016–2020 forecast period. Manufacturing (64.2%), Resource Industries (16.6%), and Healthcare Provider (6.6%) represent the three largest verticals for robotics in 2016, and this situation will remain relatively unchanged throughout the forecast period.

“The market for robotics continues to record rapid growth in CEE. This growth is fueled by a combination of technology improvements, which expands the range of use cases for robotics, and increasing demands for automation, which is a way to offset rising production costs that are especially detrimental to CEE manufacturers’ competitiveness,” says Martin Kuban, senior research analyst with IDC Manufacturing Insights, CEE.

In addition to spending data on robotic systems, system hardware, software, robotics-related services, and after-market robotics hardware, the robotics Spending Guide now includes data on purchases of commercial and consumer drones and after-market drone hardware. Drones are proving to be of greater significance to many CEE industries; the share of drone spending of total robotics spending will more than triple in CEE, rising from less than 1% in 2016 to nearly 3% in 2020.

In terms of consumer spending on robots, share has been low in CEE, at just over 4% in 2016, and it is expected to remain at this level through 2020. In the case of drones, the share of consumer spending represents nearly one half of the market value in CEE in 2016, however it is expected to gradually decrease toward 17% in 2020 as the potential for usage of industrial drones has been rapidly expanding and will translate into increased technology spending in the coming years.

From a technology perspective, hardware spending on robotics systems, which includes consumer, industrial, and service robots, and after-market robotic hardware will total more than $1.2 billion in 2016. Services-related spending, which encompasses applications management, education and training, hardware deployment, systems integration, and consulting, will come to more than $0.5 billion in 2016.

“The growth prospects in CEE have attracted major robotics vendors and integrators, says Ina Malatinska, IDC CEE lead for robotics technology research. “IDC has observed that these robotics players have been notably increasing their service level support in local CEE markets, for instance by opening new office hubs outside capital cities and by bringing the storage of replacement parts closer to customers. This is an important development for the market, should companies increase their reliance on robotic technologies.”

The Worldwide Commercial Robotics Spending Guide quantifies the robotics opportunity from region, industry, use case, and technology perspectives. Spending data is available for more than 52 use cases across 13 key industries in eight regions. Data is also available for a wide range of robotics hardware, software, and services categories. Unlike any other research in the industry, the detailed segmentation and timely, global data is designed to help suppliers targeting the market to identify market opportunities and execute an effective strategy.

About IDC Spending Guides

IDC's Spending Guides provide a granular view of key technology markets from a regional, vertical industry, use case, buyer, and technology perspective. The spending guides are delivered via pivot table format or custom query tool, allowing the user to easily extract meaningful information about each market by viewing data trends and relationships.