The Europe rugged phones market is expected to grow from US$ 672.78 million in 2019 to US$ 1,042.87 million by 2027; it is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 5.8 % from 2020 to 2027.
Rising demand for rugged phones across diverse industries is expected to accelerate the growth of the Europe rugged phones market. The consumer electronics industry across Europe is strongly stimulated due to the significant adoption of smartphones among various industry verticals, such as construction, manufacturing, industrial environments, retail, transportation, and emergency services, for both mission-critical and noncritical communication applications. The demand for smartphones and feature phones is growing at an impressive pace owing to increasing investments in research and development related to display technologies, communication networks, battery, and camera advancements. Regular upgradation in the design of rugged phones and integration of new features to match the level of features/applications offered by today’s consumer grade smartphones and feature phones are boosting the demand for these phones, especially in industrial sectors with harsh working environments. The demand for these rugged phones with differentiated features such as IP certification, dustproof, drop-tested, and high battery capacity for industrial task force and public safety workers has been growing at an impressive rate in the past few years in both developed and developing countries across Europe. Hence, the rise in the proliferation of smartphones and feature phones with rugged capabilities across industry sectors is anticipated to drive the growth of the Europe rugged phones market during the forecast period.
Countries in Europe, especially the UK, are adversely affected due the COVID-19 outbreak. The governments in various European countries have imposed lockdowns and movement restrictions multiple times in the past few months. Recently, the second wave of the outbreak in countries such as the UK and France led to the country-wide lockdowns in these countries. A large number of businesses operating in the region are experiencing financial and logistics challenges as they are either suspending their operations or reducing their activities owing to government imposed restrictions. European countries are the major markets for rugged phones owing to the presence of a strong military & defense, industrial, and government & public safety end users. In various European countries, lockdown has hindered the launch of new products, investments in R&D, revenues of companies due to reduced demand, and caused disruptions in supply and delivery schedule. This scenario is restraining the overall growth of the Europe rugged phones market.
Based on end-user, the industrial segment led the Europe rugged phones market in 2019. The industrial sector includes transportation & logistics, construction, manufacturing, energy & utility, and facility management. As the demand for reliability, ease of use, significant intelligence, and advances in mesh networks in the industrial sector is expanding, the penetration of robotics, process control, automation, and Industry 4.0 is booming, which would play a vital role in boosting the adoption rate of rugged phones. In the oil & gas industry, applications such as upstream, midstream, downstream, subsea, and offshore are demanding rugged phones, as they can efficiently withstand the environmental conditions in mentioned applications. These rugged phones help construction workers, architects, mechanics, and builders do their job by using features, such as Push-to-Talk function and noise canceling microphone. These features are ideal for a real-time group communication for the construction teams in noisy conditions. Therefore, use of rugged phones is receiving traction, as it can allow the workers to work in loud working conditions as well as keep them safe and comfortable, while ensuring an uninterrupted supply chain. The use of rugged phones is gaining high momentum in the industrial sector because of environment and climate-sensitive surroundings present in the sector, which would drive the Europe rugged phones market during forecast period.
The overall Europe rugged phones market size has been derived using both primary and secondary sources. To begin the research process, exhaustive secondary research has been conducted using internal and external sources to obtain qualitative and quantitative information related to the market. The process also serves the purpose of obtaining an overview and forecast for the Europe rugged phones market with respect to all the segments pertaining to the region. Also, multiple primary interviews have been conducted with industry participants and commentators to validate the data, as well as to gain more analytical insights into the topic. The participants of this process include industry experts such as VPs, business development managers, rugged phones market intelligence managers, and national sales managers, along with external consultants such as valuation experts, research analysts, and key opinion leaders specializing in the Europe rugged phones market. Caterpillar Inc.; Juniper Systems Inc.; Sonim Technologies Inc.; Unitech Electronics Co., LTD; and Zebra Technologies Corporation are among the players operating in the market.