Satellite-Based Earth Observation Growth to be driven by Commercial Vertical Markets

Wilmington, DE, October 1, 2013 – NSR’s Global Satellite-Based Earth Observation (EO), 5th Edition report, released today, projects satellite-based EO revenues from Data, Processing and Information Products will reach $6 billion in the coming ten years, up from $2.2 billion in 2012. Facing a difficult public sector budgetary climate, the EO industry is now shifting its roots from Government & Military customers to blooming Commercial verticals, with the latter representing more than 50% of the market in 2022. New Data products, new solutions, new business models and renewed pressures to lower shutter control regulations point towards strong creative innovation developing in the EO market.

“The EO market is really at a turning-point, as several factors are now boosting demand from commercial end-users, while at the same time demand from traditional governmental end-users is seriously slowing down,” states NSR Senior Analyst and report author, Stéphane Gounari. “Beyond data sales, as commercial verticals are more open to externalization, the next decade should see the relative share of data decrease in favor of Information Products.”

“As shown by the new Cloud-based EO solutions recently released, certain satellite operators are positioning themselves to best take advantage of this shift,” stated Gounari. “Their solutions, best for the small commercial end-users, go far beyond on-line archived catalog and delivery services; they include or facilitate Processing and Information Products.”

The future of the EO market and the developments there in will be interesting to watch. While emerging economies are slowing down, which will eventually impact the market. Innovation and creative thinking and reassessment of regulations will give the EO market a slightly different view.

About the Report
NSR’s Global Satellite-Based Earth Observation (EO), 5th Edition provides a meticulous and thorough analysis of the trends affecting the satellite EO data industry and a new segmentation going beyond Data/VAS to Data, Processing and Information Products. The report includes a step-by-step analysis of the industry’s macro-environment, its competitive intensity, an assessment of each market (segmented by end-user verticals, regions and instrument-resolution), the major-players and their imaging capabilities currently in-orbit and planned, and a cartography of the value-chain. NSR comprehensively identifies Key Success Factors and forecasts the evolution of the Data, Processing and Information Products markets over the next 10 years, and presents them segmented by end-user vertical markets (6), regional markets (5) and instrument-resolution (6); the latter is also used to present data price forecasts, one additional innovation offered by NSR’s report.

For additional information on this report, including a full table of contents, list of figures and executive summary, please visit www.nsr.com or call NSR at 617-576-5771.