Indoor Location Market worth $19.7 billion by 2026

The global Indoor Location market size is expected to grow from $7.0 billion in 2021 to $19.7 billion in 2026, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.9% during the forecast period, according to Markets and Markets.

Several factors will contribute to this: the Covid-19 pandemic, for example, has exploded interest in facilities management, virus tracking, people tracking and management, and smart quarantine. The growing integration of beacons into cameras, LED lighting, Point of Sale (PoS) devices, and digital signage; the proliferation of smartphones, connected devices, and location-based apps among customers; and the inefficiency of GPS technology in the indoor environment, too.

Until the public health emergency with the pandemic, the most prominent implementation of indoor location was proximity marketing, which delivers promotional material to consumers based on their location. With the improvement of micro-location technologies ((BLE, UWB, Bluetooth 5.1, the future WiFi 802.11az, etc), other applications have emerged from the exact location of objects and people anywhere: factories, warehouses, offices, hospitals, museums, schools, malls.

Many factors must be considered when discussing positioning accuracy. The environment, system design, antenna path delay, and other parameters can degrade the nominal accuracy. In any case, it is good to keep in mind that UWB can achieve the highest level of accuracy with centimeter-level positioning. Bluetooth 5.1-based systems should be able to achieve sub-meter accuracy, while WiFi 802.11az deployments, due to availability in 2022, should be able to achieve decimeter accuracy.

In addition to positioning accuracy, other factors affecting the decision to invest in a new positioning technology are data security and privacy, power consumption, cost, existing infrastructure, transmission range, and interoperability.

Data leakage threats can be a major drawback to the adoption of indoor location technologies. posing a serious threat to user privacy. The situation can be further exacerbated if the information collected by the service provider leaks because of external attacks.

Most business organizations see spatial information as one of the key factors for working on ambitious projects and making important decisions. Therefore, data generated by indoor location applications and micro-location technologies are also already starting to feed Indoor Positioning Systems (IPS) and Location Intelligence solutions.

As IPS technologies mature and find their place in the market, more and more companies will integrate internal positioning into their product or service offering.

Get to know the main platform and solution providers for this market, according to reviews/market/indoor-location-services" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gartner and/or 360 Quadrants.

And the FiRa consortium, which is committed to the development and application of user experiences with UWB technologies.