9-11 Nov. 1999
either through waveform
capture, is becoming
al instruments and will
ie next 12 - 18 months.
such as automatic feature
. Improvements to the
such as fully integrated
jlity/decreased operating
e commercial sector.
JMENT BASE
t growth of the installed
trends in the commercial
imetry systems have been
vernment and academic
re has been a large growth
nizations operating such
As a new technology, the
irborne laser altimetry is
ndard operational tool in
nt indicator to review. It
plied demand for services
be used as the basis for
base and the resulting
companies using airborne
mercial sector since 1995
nents has been increasing
akdown of the annual rate
1 delivery of instruments,
resented in Table 2. The
int year-over-year growth
1998. Table 3 expands on the historical data by providing a
projection for deliveries in 2000 based on orders confirmed by
the manufacturers for the first six months of the year and
projected orders in the second six months.
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Hemote Sensing, Vol. 32, Part 3W14, La Jolla, CA, 9-11 Nov. 1999
ients % base
8%
16%
5%
24%
47%
100%
ent Base by Year
altimeters deployed and
S increased from 3 to 38,
| growth occurring since
ble 2 represent a capital
on current pricing levels,
ary instruments compared
of the systems currently
in 1999 with 7096 of the
1 deployed since January
Year #instruments % base
Jan 1st 2000 38 66%
2000 (Jan - June) 10 17%
2000 (July - December) ~10 17%
Total by Jan 1st 2001 ~58 100%
Table 3. Projected Growth In Installed Instrument Base By
2001.
There is no evidence that the adoption of the technology by
commercial survey companies is going to slow in the next 12 -
18 months. Unlike 1997, when a significant increase in
installed systems the year earlier was followed by a drop in
orders, 2000 looks set to follow-up on 1999’ level of deliveries
with continued gains. With 10 systems already confirmed for
delivery within the first six months, the total order book for the
first half of 2000 is ahead of the year-earlier pace. Initial
projections indicate that annual deliveries will remain at or
exceed the 1999 level.
It is also useful to look at the breakdown of installed
instruments by manufacturer, with proprietary systems as a
separate category. Table 4 presents this breakdown as of
January 1, 2000.
Manufacturer #instruments % base
Azimuth 2 5%
Optech 17 45%
TopEye 7 18%
Proprietary * 12 32%
Total 38 100%
* Includes 3 instruments that are based on a proprietary design
of Azimuth’s OTS instrument.
Table 4. Installed Instrument Base by Manufacturer
Since 1995, the commercial off-the-shelf manufacturers have
captured 68% of the instrument market. Optech has established
itself as the market leader with 65% of the OTS market. If the
proprietary sensors that are based either on Azimuth subsystems
or proprietary designs of their standard sensor are included as
OTS systems instead, then the commercial instrument
manufacturers have 76% of the installed base. The subtotal
reported in Table 4 for proprietary instruments includes a
number of legacy instruments that were already built or in
development prior to the widespread availability of commercial
off-the-shelf systems. It is not clear if the organizations
operating these proprietary sensors would replace their systems
with OTS instruments or continue their own proprietary
development if they need to expand their instrument base.
Since January 1998, only 2396 (6 of 26) of systems delivered to
the field have been proprietary builds. Further evidence of a
shift away from custom-built designs can be seen in the fact
several owners of previously proprietary designs (Nortech,
TerraPoint, TopoSys) have recently started to formally or
informally offer their customized systems for sale or lease. This
change in business strategy for companies previously focused
exclusively on providing survey services through proprietary
technology can be attributed in part to the successful emergence
of dedicated instrument manufacturers. It is becoming harder
for survey companies to leverage the capital investment
required to develop a proprietary instrument into a
corresponding increase in their share of the survey market.
Access to OTS instruments with similar, or in some cases
enhanced, functionality is readily available to their competition,
reducing the competitive advantage for survey companies who
design and build their own proprietary instruments. A
proprietary development program also requires a survey
organization to develop skills which are not synchronized with
their survey business, while on-going support and maintenance
for proprietary systems can divert staff and resources away from
the core business. It can be anticipated that as more OTS
instruments are deployed, there will be a further reduction in
the percentage of custom-built systems operating in the market,
although the actual number of proprietary instruments should
continue to increase slightly. The fact there is still on-going
development and deployment of proprietary systems with
essentially the same functionality as OTS instruments is
evidence that the capital costs of OTS instruments are still high
enough to act as a barrier to entry for many survey companies.
The capital investment to acquire a commercial OTS sensor still
makes even the relatively large development costs of a
proprietary sensor attractive to some companies. From this, it
can be concluded that there must be some price-point flexibility
on OTS instruments if the custom market is to be fully co-opted
by the dedicated instrument manufacturers. Regardless of any
future price reductions, custom-built systems will remain
attractive for those organizations that can leverage existing
laser/lidar expertise during their design process or for those
organizations that require advanced functionality not yet
offered by OTS systems.
The geographic distribution of currently installed instruments is
presented in Table 5. The distribution is heavily weighted
towards North America and Europe. However, it should be
noted that many of the current commercial operators have
international operations, through either subsidiaries or strategic
partners. Consequently, airborne laser surveys are being
undertaken in most regions of the globe. In can be speculated
that part of the continued growth in the installed instrument
base will address current inefficiencies in delivering laser
altimetry services to a global market without a regionally
balanced base of sensors. Based on the breakdown of booked
orders, North America and Europe will continue to experience
the largest growth in available instrument base over the next
12-18 months. However, several of the instruments in the
queue are likely intended to address international operations of
these firms and may be based outside Europe or North America.
