MEZZANINE CARDS: STRONG, SMALL, BUT CROWDED MARKET.

According to Eric Gulliksen, Practice Director for VDC's Embedded Hardware group, "It costs money to maintain and support marginal products that produce only occasional, low-volume sales. Clearly many, if not most, of the mezzanine cards currently on the market fall into this category. The market is simply too small to support all of them, and is also too small to profitably support all of these vendors."

Natick, Massachusetts (PRWEB) September 5, 2003 -- Mezzanine cards constitute a small, but growing, segment of the market for merchant computer boards for embedded and real-time applications. However, the market may not be able to support the plethora of vendors and products that exist in this segment.

In a recently published Venture Development Corporation (VDC) report entitled Mezzanine Cards, a part the company's 2002/2003 Merchant Computer Boards Market Intelligence Program, the year 2002 market for mezzanine cards was sized at US$ 169.6 million. This is expected to grow to US$ 236.8 million in 2007, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 6.9% over the period.

Projected Sales of Mezzanine Cards (US$ in Millions)

2002: $169.6
2007: $236.8

Most of the present market, as well as nearly all of the growth, is attributed to mezzanine cards of the PMC form factor.

However, Eric Gulliksen, Practice Director for VDC's Embedded Hardware group, pointed out some disturbing figures. "VDC identified 107 vendors that currently sell mezzanine cards. Together, these firms offer a total of 1,590 mezzanine card products. Approximately 154.3 thousand cards were shipped by these companies in 2002."

Gulliksen pointed out that if one were to apply the '80-20 rule' to these shipments, by assuming that 20% of products accounted for 80% of unit shipments, over 123 thousand of the cards shipped comprised just 318 products. The other 1,272 products represented less than 31 thousand units shipped - an average of just over 24 units each.

"It costs money to maintain and support marginal products that produce only occasional, low-volume sales. Clearly many, if not most, of the mezzanine cards currently on the market fall into this category. The market is simply too small to support all of them, and is also too small to profitably support all of these vendors."

VDC believes that consolidation, both of mezzanine card products and of vendors, is both necessary and inevitable.

About the Study

The above-mentioned report is a part of a year-long planning service, Year 2002-2003 Planning Service on Computers in Embedded and Real-Time Applications, which includes the following reports:

Volume I: Embedded CPU Boards (SBCs, Motherboards)
Volume II: Next-Generation Platforms (Blades, COMs)
Volume III: Utility and I/O Cards
Volume IV: Mezzanine Cards
Volume V: PC/104, PC/104-Plus Cards
Volume VI: Embedded CPUs and Chipsets
Volume VII: Global Embedded Market Overview and Outlook

Prices for the reports or report sections range from US$ 3,000 to US$ 36,200 for the entire service.

Major emphasis is placed on gathering data directly from decision makers at vendors that make these products, and firms that purchase the products. Both vendors and purchasers are interviewed. Additional data is obtained through an e-mail survey of users. This data is supplemented by secondary research in technical and business literature, government databases, trade associations, professional societies, and corporate and industry reports.

To view the entire press release go to:
http://www.vdc-corp.com/embedded/press/03/pr03-61.html

Report Availability:
http://www.vdc-corp.com/embedded/reports/03/br03-29.html

For further information about these reports or other VDC services, contact:

Marc Regberg
Vice President of Sales and Marketing
508-653-9000 x 111
msr@vdc-corp.com

Eric Gulliksen
Practice Director
508-653-9000 x 149
ericg@vdc-corp.com