The North American PERS (Personal Emergency Response Systems) service market is forecast to grow from $700 million in 2014 to $1.5 billion in 2019. The main market drivers are a growing elderly population and the increased use of mPERS, according to a recent report from IHS Inc., by Oliver Philippou, Senior Analyst in the Video Surveillance and Security Services.
PERS using traditional telephone lines remains the largest segment of the market. However, as the United States begins to move away from POTS-based communication in the home, home phones will be replaced by either voice over internet protocol (VoIP) or cellular phones; limiting the number of potential in-home fixed customers. Furthermore, mPERS is predicted to attract younger users, meaning users are unlikely to transfer to a fixed product if they are already familiar with the more flexible mPERS products.
Other Key findings of the report include:
• Value-added services will offer considerable revenue growth. This is because additional services, including fall detection and medicine reminders, can increase a user’s monthly spend by 25–30%.
• IHS predicts that in the next 12–18 months, activity monitoring will be included as an mPERS value-added service. These products will provide general metrics including the number of steps taken and calories burned. This will be a by-product of the fall-detection function, which already records the user’s activity throughout the day.
by the Editorial Staff
