Public safety IT market to experience major growth by 2011
According to research from CompassIntelligence.com, in 2008 the public safety sector, which includes fire, police, and EMT departments, is expected to purchase $17.4 billion in information technology including telecom, applications, outsourcing, services/support, network hardware, computer hardware and IT personnel.
The report forecasts a slight decline in the market with single-digit annual growth into 2011 followed by an increase in growth in 2011.
Major growth areas include wireless data devices as emergency workers turn to PDAs, laptops, and mobile data terminals to access timely emergency information.
Other findings include:
–Telecom services and equipment is expected to be the largest spending segment by the public safety market, with 39 percent of the market driven by wireless data and equipment needs.
–The applications segment is predicted to be the fastest-growing segment and reach $4.4 billion by 2011.
–The police segment represents 74 percent of the public safety market IT spend, followed by the fire and EMT segments.
The research notes that the public safety sector represents almost a third of the state and local government market and continues to be a hot area for wireless data and next generation broadband.
Compass Intelligence is a global consulting and market analytics firm that specializes in segment and vertical market intelligence for the high-tech IT and telecom industries.