ABI Research Ranks Bluvision as the Leading BLE Beacon Vendor; Gimbal, Kontakt.io, Estimote, and Radius Networks Round Out Top Five

ABI Research, the leader in transformative technology innovation market intelligence, ranks Bluvision as the leader among 24 BLE beacon vendors considered in its latest competitive analysis. Despite limited publicity, Bluvision’s strong market share, technology innovation, and willingness to aggressively move into new emerging markets places it in a very strong position for the future. The top five companies include Bluvision, Gimbal, Kontakt.io, Estimote, and Radius Networks.

“Bluvision underwent a significant shift in the past 12 months, redesigning its hardware and platform to focus on asset tracking and non-retail markets,” says Patrick Connolly, Principal Analyst at ABI Research. “It was a brave decision to transition so decisively to non-retail, but it looks to be the right one given the company’s hardware capabilities. Over the next five years, the emerging markets of asset tracking, vending machines, industrial, enterprise, and IoT will drive the company’s high-volume shipments. Bluvision is well-placed to remain the leading market share vendor.”

Bluvision is one of the few companies to design its cloud platform to support asset tracking and industrial applications. It has its own “Blu-Fi” device, which combines BLE and Wi-Fi technology for network management; a new high-accuracy location technique; and it now offers a variety of beacon hardware formats, including tags, USBs, and badges. But it is not the only company showing marked innovation, as evident by the mere five points that separated the top five companies in the competitive analysis.

“The industry is unlikely to see any real consolidation in the near future,” continues Connolly. “Estimote just released an incredibly impressive beacon offering. Kontakt.io dominates market share with its huge pool of partners. Gimbal is securing some interesting, high volume wins around advertising. And Radius Networks continues to provide a very high quality hardware and platform combination.”

Beyond the top five companies, there is a huge amount of market activity and financial investment. European companies Beaconinside, Onyx, and Quuppa are all rapidly innovating. Additionally, while Sensoro did not receive a spot in the top 5, it looks to be best positioned for the biggest YoY growth in 2016. SK Telecom/Shopkick is another vendor that appears set for international expansion.

“We see the big Wi-Fi access point vendors like Zebra, Cisco, and Aruba all starting to play a significant role,” concludes Connolly. “Companies like Blesh, Unacast, Sensorberg, and Spark Compass are building impressive vendor-agnostic platforms.” 

These findings are part of ABI Research’s BLE Beacon Technologies and Services Research Service, which includes research reports, market data, insights, and competitive assessments.

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About ABI Research

For more than 25 years, ABI Research has stood at the forefront of technology market intelligence, partnering with innovative business leaders to implement informed, transformative technology decisions. The company employs a global team of senior analysts to provide comprehensive research and consulting services through deep quantitative forecasts, qualitative analyses and teardown services. An industry pioneer, ABI Research is proactive in its approach, frequently uncovering ground-breaking business cycles ahead of the curve and publishing research 18 to 36 months in advance of other organizations. In all, the company covers more than 60 services, spanning 11 technology sectors. For more information, visit www.abiresearch.com.