European Social Alarms Markets: Industry Research Report

European Social Alarms Markets

Published Date: June 2006

Published By: Frost & Sullivan

Page Count: 114

Order Code: R1-4961

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Description

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Research Overview

This Frost & Sullivan research service titled European Social Alarms Markets offers an analysis of key market drivers, technology trends and market shares of major participants in the market. In this research, Frost & Sullivan's expert analyst thoroughly examines the following applications: first-generation, second-generation and third-generation social alarm applications across Europe.

Market Sectors

Expert Frost & Sullivan analysts thoroughly examine the following market sectors in this research:

First-generation social alarms
Second-generation social alarms
Third-generation social alarms

Technologies

The following technologies are covered in this research:

First-generation Alarms: These devices consist of a simple telephone unit and a pendant with a button that can be triggered when help is required by the user. The monitoring centre systems receive the call, which displays the caller's identity and location, thereby enabling care staff to provide immediate response based on the level of urgency.
Second-generation Alarms: This segment, otherwise known as ‘telecare’, refers to the use of sensors such as smoke, fire and flood detectors, among others, which enable the care staff to respond to a crisis by providing immediate response in case of emergencies.
Third-generation Alarms: This refers to a more advanced type of telecare service, which collects activity data automatically through various sensors on a continuous basis through the detection of various movements such as opening of doors, cupboards, flow of water and the use of electrical appliances. Widely used sensors include front door open/close detectors, fridge open/close detectors, pressure mats, bed/chair occupancy and electrical usage sensors.

Market Overview

Market Growth to Hinge on Growing Need to Provide Improved Non-institutionalised Care Services to Rising Ageing Population

The demographic transition across Europe, leading to growing ageing population, is resulting in rising pressure on the health and social care sector to provide high-quality services at lower operating costs. Hence, the social alarm technology is being increasingly deployed to provide non-institutionalised care and promote an independent lifestyle for the elderly population. Moreover, the existent low penetration of the technology is expected to offer tremendous growth opportunities to information and communications infrastructure providers, social alarm equipments suppliers as well as community service providers, thus supporting the continued development of the social alarms market.

"The growing elderly population in Europe and spiralling health and social care costs are the key factors promoting the growth of social alarm and telecare applications," says the analyst of this research service." In view of the increase in life expectancy and the dependency ratio (ratio of retired people to those in the working group), governments across Europe are adopting simple technologies such as social alarm and telecare to offer effective care to the ageing population. Moreover, the shortage of care or residential homes that provide intermediary care is resulting in delays in the discharge of elderly acute-care patients. As a result, governments are eager to adopt the social alarm technology to provide for better utilisation of funds for intensive care.

Merger and Consolidation Strategies Crucial to Combat Intensifying Competition

The market is highly price driven, thus leading to intense competition among major participants. This serves as a major deterrent to cost-conscious customers that are seeking cheap, reliable products rather than high-quality innovative ones. While the prices of social alarm devices have exhibited a decline despite the growth in sales volume, increasing competition and cheap imports from the East are resulting in a slump in profits per unit. Thus, the market poses significant challenges for new entrants, such as huge fixed and developmental costs as well as rising competition from pioneers with high market penetration.

The use of simple social alarms (also known as first-generation alarms) is spread equally across independent homes and sheltered housings, thus contributing to the highest revenues in the market. However, while proactive telecare applications are gaining acceptance due to enhanced emphasis on intermediate care, the high costs involved in these applications are likely to hamper the growth of this segment. "To combat these challenges, mergers and consolidation strategies will become essential to expand the existing customer base," remarks the analyst. "In the future, growth will depend on the ability to provide simple, cost-effective, customised telecare solutions that can be easily deployed in individuals' homes to provide non-institutionalised services."

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