Virtual Sensors Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Component (Solution, Service), By Deployment (Cloud, On-premise), By End Use (Oil & Gas, Electronics, Healthcare), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2019 - 2025

Industry Insights

The global virtual sensors market size was estimated at USD 284.0 million in 2018. Increase in adoption of IoT cloud platforms and significant demand across the manufacturing sector is anticipated to support the growth of global market over the forecast period. Moreover, the increasing deployment of virtual sensors can also be attributed to rising awareness among the organizations about their advantages and cost-effectiveness.

Virtual sensors are software-based solutions and are also known as soft sensors. They are developed using multiple output readings of physical sensors as a mathematical model. These solutions are deployed to overcome the limitations associated to the physical sensors. A single virtual sensor is capable enough to predict results based on multiple parameters such as temperature, pressure, speed, and position. Hence, these solutions are increasingly deployed as an alternative to physical sensors owing to cost benefits.

Virtual sensing solutions are in high demand particularly in the telecommunications, technology, aviation, automobile, and media sector. Functional efficiency offered by them in the real environment is driving the demand for such solutions. In addition, organizations are employing virtual sensors to gain a thorough efficiency, agility, and scalability in their operations. Virtual sensors are thus known to minimize operational expenses and enhance operational efficiency.

The leading manufacturers are highly emphasizing on development of a virtual sensing solution as a standard model. Owing to this, standardization has become a major trend witnessed as a viewpoint to characterize the sensed data. This leads in building a structure-based model for sensor deployment, which can further help in identifying crucial data points produced within a standardized model. It is also expected that; this model enables various sensor applications to modify data seamlessly between sensor networks.

However, from a technical perspective, sensor networks might invite certain restrictions as seen in other cases of network deployment. The data security concerns with the deployment of virtual sensors on cloud sensor network are restricting organizations to adopt virtual sensors. Although, vendors are highly engaged in the development of secure cloud solution in order to cope up with the data privacy concerns. Subscription-based private cloud platforms are present in the market to overcome the security and privacy concerns.

Component Insights

The solution segment is anticipated to exhibit a robust market growth throughout the forecast period. The cloud-based virtual sensing solutions are gaining high traction from manufacturing facilities with the introduction of industry 4.0. These solutions are enhancing the robot guidance operations by predicting and reducing the accidents. Moreover, there has been a high demand for sensors in the cloud solutions due to intensive techniques used for data accumulation.

Under services, a virtual sensor offers sensitivity, speed, and diversity that mainly results in speedy relay of information transmission between two nodes in a network. An enterprise can either choose between complementary, supplementary or even look for substitute products. For instance, the basic difference amongst these bring out the underlying functionally specificity and approach to decide upon zeroing a sensor for a particular task. An enterprise’s success or failure mainly depends on choosing for type of service and associated complexity. Therefore, the rise in digital awareness among enterprises to choose their forte is highly influential in driving the growth of segment.

Deployment Insights

The on-premise deployment segment dominated the virtual sensors market in 2018. On-premise deployment is a traditional deployment mode and is currently the dominating segment owing to higher data security and low privacy concerns. Moreover, IT professionals are required in on-premise deployment that can track, monitor, and manage the optimization process in real time. It also allows the enterprises to install highly secured, customized, and complex software based virtual sensor solutions to cater the specific needs of enterprises.

Growing deployment of sensor network through cloud computing has led to the introduction of sensor cloud. A sensor cloud is a hub of virtual sensing solutions that is built above physical wireless sensors, which can cater to users’ requirements autonomously based on applications. Major advantages under this approach are high shareability of data among peer networks, better sensor management capability, and low total cost for data collection for user and system. In addition, this approach allows enterprises to migrate their services to the cloud wherein the resources can be further scaled.

End-use Insights

Based on end use, the market can be segmented as oil and gas, automotive and transportation, manufacturing and utilities, electronics, healthcare, aerospace and defense, and others. Manufacturing and utilities are anticipated to gain a significant traction owing to a high demand for gaining real-time data and monitoring systems within the operations. Moreover, IoT coupled with industry 4.0 has led to establishment and upgradation to smart factories that are fully automated and featured with wireless connectivity. Therefore, industry 4.0 and IoT is further going to support the growth of manufacturing segment over the forecast period.

The aerospace and defense segment is expected to witness remarkable growth over the coming years. This can be attributed to the benefits such as higher reliability and provision of safe flight operations offered by these sensors. Moreover, virtual simulation training helps in ensuring the aviation safety and identifying other risks related to the life of pilot and aircraft. These factors are expected to accelerate the demand for software-based sensing solutions from the aerospace and defense industry.

Regional Insights

North America maintains a dominant position in the global market owing to the rise in use of IoT cloud models as a part of virtual deployment. Presence of major vendors with inclination towards SaaS platform triggers the demand for virtual sensors in the market as virtual reality is a prominent technology across public sector in North America. In addition, the regional market is fueled with ongoing innovations in the field of VR. Therefore, higher willingness among the enterprises in the region towards the adoption of innovative advanced technologies is supporting the overall market growth.

The market in Europe is highly influenced by extensive use of virtual sensors in healthcare to detect anxiety disorders, phobias, and panic disorders in patients. Ongoing innovations in the VR such as integration of VR with bio-sensing feedback backed by data integration is propelling the demand for virtual sensors in the European market. A positive outlook of the healthcare sector in the region will create lucrative growth opportunities for the manufacturers operating the market. In addition, untapped potential in the markets of Italy, Netherland, and Germany offers lucrative growth opportunities in the near future.

Virtual Sensors Market Share Insights

Key players operating in the global market are Siemens AG; General Electric Company; Aspen Technologies, Inc.; Elliptic Laboratories A/S; and TACTILE MOBILITY. These companies are effectively using their existing consumers to promote the adoption of virtual sensors. Moreover, the vendors are investing significantly in the research and development of virtual sensing solutions to cater to the customers’ demand. Owing to the high market growth potential, several other players have started providing services for virtual sensors to capitalize on the market opportunities.

The global virtual sensor market is characterized by the presence of a limited number of players in the market. Customized solution offerings according to the customers’ requirement is a key trend observed in the market. Moreover, product launch and technology partnerships are the major strategies opted in the recent past by the prominent players operating in the virtual sensor market. For instance, in September 2018, Tactile Mobility launched its tactile sensing and data analytics platform for superior driving experience to its consumers in the automotive industry.

Report Scope

Segments Covered in the Report

This report forecasts revenue growth at global, regional, and country levels and provides an analysis of the latest industry trends in each of the sub-segments from 2014 to 2025. For the purpose of this study, Grand View Research has segmented the global virtual sensors market report based on component, deployment, end use, and region:

• Component Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

  • Solution

  • Service

• Deployment Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

  • Cloud

  • On-Premise

• End-use Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

  • Oil & Gas

  • Automotive & Transportation

  • Manufacturing & Utilities

  • Electronics

  • Healthcare

  • Aerospace & Defense

  • Others

• Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

  • North America

    • U.S.

    • Canada

  • Europe

    • Germany

    • U.K.

  • Asia Pacific

    • China

    • India

    • Japan

  • Latin America

    • Brazil

  • Middle East & Africa