by Gary Mintchell | Jul 18, 2025 | Automation, News
I’m not a huge fan of market studies. My skepticism began at university in my first macro economics class. However, Interact Analysis’s methodology comes closest to winning me over than any others. Here are two recent reports from China-based market analyst Samantha Mou.
Growth Forecast for Machine Vision Market for 2025
- Machine Vision market declined by 3.9% in 2024
- Area Scan camera suffered largest decline
- Market set to recover in 2025, despite Trump’s tariffs
The global market for Machine Vision declined by 3.9% in 2024 as global industrial automation markets struggled due to challenging macro-economic growth, according to Interact Analysis. However, the market intelligence specialist forecasts a return to revenue growth from 2025, despite worldwide uncertainty caused by the introduction of US trade tariffs by the Trump administration.
A contributing factor to the overall decline of machine vision revenues was excess inventory, which customers and distributors worked through in 2024. This led to a decrease in purchases of new machine vision products over the year. Many end customers also performed badly in 2024, with the general slowdown in manufacturing having a significant impact on the worldwide machine vision market.
Despite the decline of the machine vision market and the uncertainty caused by US tariff announcements, Interact Analysis projects market growth of 1.5% over the year to reach $5.7 billion. The general outlook for manufacturing and machinery production is starting to strengthen, driving machine vision growth in 2025 and the market is projected to reach a value of only $7 billion by 2028 (slightly lower than previous forecasts).
Commenting on the latest Machine Vision report, Jonathan Sparkes, Research Analyst at Interact Analysis, says: “Looking ahead, the outlook for 2025 is proving to be much more subdued than previously expected, with additional uncertainty in the market coming through as a result of the threat of tariffs. However, into 2026 and beyond, our belief is the fundamentals for the industry remain strong and the expectation is for a return to levels of growth more inline with our previous projections.”
Global industrial robot shipments declined in 2024, recovery expected in 2025
The global shipment volume of industrial robots in 2024 totaled just over 505,000 units, reflecting a 2.4% decrease compared with 2023. This reduction in shipments, coupled with a decrease in average prices, resulted in a drop in sales revenue of -5.8% year-on-year.
A slowdown in investments in the manufacturing sector has been observed across all major regions. The Asia-Pacific region saw a relatively modest decline in robot shipments at -1.1%, while the Americas and EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) experienced sharper drops of -3.7% and -8.1%, respectively.
However, while 2024 closed on a challenging note, there are signs the market will stabilize. Positive trends in some regional markets during the first quarter of 2025 support the outlook for a gradual recovery.
All three major regions saw robot revenue decline in 2024, with modest growth expected in 2025
Manufacturing recovery signals industrial robot market stabilization
Since the second half of 2024, monthly indicators for the industrial sector in both the US and China have shown signs of recovery. Europe, while still trailing behind, has also begun to show improvement more recently. Although looming tariff uncertainties pose risks to machinery orders in the second half of 2025, current demand trends in major regions suggest these will not lead to a market-wide contraction.
According to the Japan Robot Association (JARA), orders for manipulators and robots rose 32.2% in Q1 2025, with export shipment value increasing by 22.8%. Japanese robot vendors, which accounted for 47% of global robot revenue in 2024 (according to the Interact Analysis Industrial Robot – 2025 report), are often seen as reliable indicators of broader market health.
In this context, global shipments of industrial robots are projected to grow by 5% in 2025. However, due to continued downward pressure on average prices, revenue growth is expected to be more modest, at just 2.6%.
With rising production volumes and intensifying competition, the average revenue per unit (ARPU) of industrial robots declined significantly – from around $31,100 in 2018 to $25,600 in 2024. While there was a temporary price surge in 2022 amid the global supply chain crisis, prices resumed their downward trend in 2023 as demand cooled and competition increased. In 2024, ARPU fell more sharply than in previous years, dropping by -3.6% due to easing inflation and growing competition.
Fierce price competition has taken a toll on manufacturer margins, particularly among non-collaborative robot suppliers, where pricing flexibility has hit its limits. Many emerging brands have aggressively pursued market share at the expense of profitability. This has led to expectations that the pace of price erosion will slow in 2025, with ARPU declining at a more moderate rate of 1%-2% annually through to 2029.
Still, certain product segments may help support pricing. Rising shipments of large-payload collaborative robots and SCARA robots could help stabilize ARPU moving forward.
Collaborative robots (cobots) have experienced the steepest declines in ARPU, largely due to the rise of low-cost, pure-play vendors. In 2023 and 2024, cobot ARPU declined by -6.4% and -4.1%, respectively, with a further -3.5% drop expected in 2025. The influx of these budget-oriented players has shifted the competitive landscape and accelerated price-based competition within the segment.
The global industrial robot ARPU forecast has been reduced further compared to previous projections
The industrial robot market has consolidated over the past few years, with the “Big 4” industrial robot manufacturers – FANUC, Yaskawa, ABB, and KUKA – having long maintained a dominant position. However, 2024 marked a shift toward increased market fragmentation. The top 10 vendors saw their combined market share fall from 64.6% in 2023 to 62.3% in 2024, indicating meaningful inroads are being made by smaller and emerging players, challenging the established manufacturers amid slowing demand and increasing price pressures.
Several factors contributed to this fragmentation:
- Many pure-play and emerging collaborative robot manufacturers successfully transitioned from niche pilots to scalable, general-purpose solutions, driving substantial revenue growth.
- The automotive industry, a traditional stronghold for leading suppliers, saw sluggish demand for robots, disproportionately affecting the Big 4.
- In China, aggressive price competition deterred major international vendors from participating in low-margin tenders, whereas domestic suppliers remained highly competitive.
In summary, 2024 was a year of contraction and strategic realignment in the industrial robot industry. Slowing shipments, declining prices, and intensifying competition challenged both revenue and profitability. However, regional signs of recovery, particularly in Asia and the US, and strong order books from major players like Japanese vendors point toward a likely rebound in 2025.
The industrial robot market is undergoing a critical transition. While 2024 reflected short-term headwinds, the structural trends – automation demand, labor shortages, and advances in robotics technologies – remain firmly in place. The ongoing fragmentation of the supplier base and evolution of pricing dynamics are redefining the competitive landscape, particularly in cost-sensitive segments like collaborative robots.
Looking ahead, we continue to view the market with cautious optimism. As investment cycles pick up and demand stabilizes across key industries, 2025 could mark the beginning of a new growth phase, albeit one characterized by tighter margins and more nuanced competition. Robot manufacturers will need to balance innovation, efficiency, and market agility to thrive in this next chapter.
To learn more, get in touch with Samantha Mou directly: [email protected].
by Gary Mintchell | Jul 16, 2025 | News
Foxit, the pdf and eSignature upstart, has released two new products.
Foxit Seeks Making pdf Documents Meet Today’s Requirements
- Foxit Launches AI-Powered Research Agent to Transform How Users Analyze Complex Documents
- New AI Tool Turns Dense Research Documents Into Actionable Insights in Seconds
I’ve been using Foxit for reading pdf documents for some time. This company has been churning out advancements and improvements at a furious rate. This news sounds much like the email summary AI applications that have proven less than successful. When I asked, Foxit assured me that they understand the problems and have taken great pains to assure customers of the accuracy of its summaries.
Foxit, a leading provider of innovative PDF and eSignature products and services, announced the launch of its AI-Powered Research Agent, an intelligent tool designed to help users quickly understand and extract insights from complex research documents like academic papers, clinical trial reports, or usability studies.
Foxit’s new AI-Powered Research Agent helps channel partners and end customers do what previously took hours, if not days, in just minutes: extract meaningful, structured insights from dense, complex research documents. Whether it’s academic papers, clinical trial reports, white papers, or usability studies, these types of documents are typically filled with technical language, inconsistent formatting, and lengthy sections that require time, expertise, and focus to fully understand. The Research Agent solves this pain point by using AI to automatically break down each document into five clearly defined sections:
- Overview – A summary of the document’s purpose and scope
- Research Methods – How the study was conducted
- Research Results – The key findings
- Conclusions – What the results mean
- Glossary – Definitions of technical terms
The Research Agent is part of a growing suite of AI features available at ai.foxit.com, which now also includes:
- Document Translation – Instantly translate full documents into multiple languages
- Read Aloud – Hear your documents read aloud for easier accessibility and review
- Web Search – Enrich responses with real-time data from the web
- Chat History – Organize and access past conversations in a refreshed left-side panel
- Temporary Chat – Ask questions without saving the conversation history
- Document View – View the uploaded document(s) side-by-side while chatting
Foxit’s AI-Powered Research Agent and expanding toolset are the latest example of the company’s commitment to creating intelligent, user-centric tools that enhance productivity and eliminate friction in everyday workflows. Explore these enhancements today at ai.foxit.com and discover how AI can help everyone work smarter with research-heavy documents.
Foxit Launches PDF and Document Workflow APIs for Developers
Foxit announced the launch of its new Foxit APIs, delivering developer-friendly access to Foxit’s powerful PDF and document generation technologies, all hosted securely in the cloud.
Foxit APIs are designed for speed, scalability, and simplicity. Allowing organizations to embed advanced document capabilities directly into their applications, customer portals, and digital workflows. From rendering interactive PDFs in a browser to automating high-volume document generation, these APIs help teams build smarter, faster document experiences without bulky infrastructure or bloated codebases.
Foxit’s new APIs include:
- PDF Services API – Automate PDF creation, conversion, manipulation, and optimization. Ideal for back-end workflows like batch processing and document archiving
- PDF Embed API – Deliver seamless in-browser PDF viewing with full control over appearance, permissions, and interactions, perfect for dashboards, portals, and CRMs
- Document Generation API – Generate contracts, letters, invoices, and other documents from structured data using templates, at scale.
by Gary Mintchell | Jul 15, 2025 | Productivity, Technology
The marketing people at Hexagon tried to set up a meeting with Mike Payne, co-owner and president, Hill Manufacturing in Tulsa, OK, while we were at the Hexagon Live event in June in Las Vegas. We couldn’t connect then, but we finally caught up this week. I wanted the meeting because while talking to product people at the company brings in depth product information, people who actually use the products for daily success bring an entirely refreshing perspective.
Payne graduated from the University of Tulsa with a degree in management information solutions. He and a couple others founded a software company focused on shop floor data collection. The software collected data from automation and sensor devices providing the data to ERP. He eventually left the company pivoting into making investments. After a period of time, he decided he missed manufacturing purchasing Hill Manufacturing from the Hill family around 2017.
Hill Manufacturing is a production machine shop. The company had been in business for about 40 years pretty much making the same parts for the same customers in the same way.
Payne dived in studying Hill’s current processes. He began to bring technology into the processes leveraging it for productivity improvements. Now, he says, it’s more of a tech company that makes parts than a standard machine shop.
The key driver is driving productivity. Like everyone these days, he experienced the pain of finding new employees. Plus, leveraging technology to improve processes enables his current employees to produce more parts. It’s a tough business. Whittling out a little more profit for each part keeps the company healthy.
Staying active on the investment side, Hill had acquired several other machine shops. The company has grown from 22 spindles to 63. With each acquisition, he’s discovered many improvements to productivity and profitability comes with upgrading technology on the machines he’s acquired. Upgrading older machines with new technology provides a new lease on life that he calls a Second Round of Life.
He mentioned AI in the front office. Since I was working on a podcast and essay on AI, I was all ears. Hill uses AI in a couple processes. Using Toolpath application, they take the 3D model from the drawing and use AI with their CNC programming software to do the actual programming. It’s theoretically capable of providing 100% of a program. They’ve discovered that it’s really about 80% good. But that makes his programmers 80% more efficient.
AI is also pretty good at reading G code from the CNC program. They can translate the code to English and enter into their shop floor management software. Workflows, tool setups, and other work instructions are provided to operators to make them more efficient and effective.
They use laser measurement devices from Hexagon (remember Hexagon?) close to the machine for immediate quality feedback. They also use Datanomix, a Hexagon partner, to improve productivity.
Payne searches constantly for new technology to improve processes. He mentioned how new coatings on a drill, for example, improves productivity. Tooling and workholding advances also contribute.
Using technology to improve processes and productivity is the foundation of Hill Manufacturing’s success. He can’t solve problems by adding more bodies, so he fills in with technology. Hill now does 2x revenue with 2/3 of the people. With today’s demographics, Payne provides a great example of intelligent use of technology to solve business problems.
by Gary Mintchell | Jul 11, 2025 | Networking, News
Up at my usual 5:30 am this morning. In place of my usual routine, I joined a Microsoft Teams conference at 6:00 (1300 CEST) for the announcement of two network associations from Germany, each promoting Single Pair Ethernet (SPE), have joined forces for joint marketing, PR, and most likely development.
Several of the major fieldbus associations joined forces recently as companies looked at the costs of overlap. This one appears to be a group begun by HARTING, TE Connectivity, HIROSE, Würth Elektronik, Bizlink, MURR Elektronik and Softing called SPE Industrial Partner Network and one headed by Phoenix Contact, Weidmüller, Sick called Single Pair Ethernet System Alliance.
The groups have been working separately for about six years for the development and promotion of SPE technology.
The SPE Industrial Partner Network e.V. and the Single Pair Ethernet System Alliance e.V., consisting of numerous well-known industrial companies, have been committed to the dissemination and further development of SPE since their inception. Until now, they have operated independently with their own members, working groups and areas of focus. With the growing awareness and relevance of SPE in the market, the networks have come closer together since the Hannover Messe 2025 and now plan to coordinate their activities in the future.
The aim is to bring the strengths and combined expertise of both networks even more effectively to bear in the market and to further accelerate the spread of SPE. The first joint activities are already planned for 2025: both networks will be represented with a joint stand at SPS Atlanta 2025 – Smart Production Solutions USA from 16 to 18 September. Both networks will also play a key role in shaping the SPE Forum on 22–23 October in Ludwigsburg, Germany, with coordinated presentations. The year will conclude with a joint exhibition stand at SPS – Smart Production Solutions from 25–27 November 2025 in Nuremberg.
Both networks have been committed to the development of international standards for SPE since the beginning. Together, they support the SPE connector standard IEC 63171-7 and are consistently driving forward its expansion to include a uniform IP20 SPE mating profile. This standard forms a connecting element for the world of automation and creates a uniform basis for future-proof industrial communication. Other existing connector solutions and the associated international standards remain unaffected and continue to be valid for the numerous fields of application of SPE.
A central focus of the collaboration is the further internationalisation of Single Pair Ethernet. The aim is to make the advantages of SPE visible worldwide and to give users around the globe access to a powerful, efficient and future-oriented network technology.
The numerous member companies of both networks are pooling their extensive expertise and innovative strength to create a strong and sustainable SPE ecosystem. This will enable users worldwide to benefit from practical solutions that pave the way for digitalisation.
