Average annual growth rate of 20.2% until 2022
There will be a significant investment in hardware.
China continues to have the fastest growth rate
On the 10th, Korea IDC released the Worldwide Semiannual Robotics and Drones Spending Guide.

According to the guide, the market size is projected to reach a total of $115.7 billion in 2019, a 17.6% increase from the previous year. Furthermore, it is projected to reach a total of $210.3 billion by 2022, with a compound annual growth rate of 20.2%.

The robotics systems market size in 2019 was $103.4 billion, larger than the drone market size of $12.3 billion, but the drone market is expected to grow at a faster rate through 2022, with a compound annual growth rate of 30.6%, compared to 18.9% for the robotics systems market.

Hardware investment is expected to be the main component, with robotics systems, aftermarket robotics hardware, and system hardware accounting for approximately two-thirds of the total robotics market demand in 2019. Investments in industrial and service robots will account for nearly 30% of total product lines in 2019, and robotics-related software spending will primarily be used for command and control applications and dedicated robot applications.

Service-related spending encompasses a variety of sectors, including systems integration, application management, and hardware deployment and support. Software spending is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 21.7%, slightly faster than services and hardware spending, which are projected to grow at 19.0% and 18.2%, respectively.

IDC forecasts that half of global spending on robotics systems in 2019 will occur in discrete manufacturing, reaching $50.2 billion. Process manufacturing, resource industries, healthcare, and consumer-related industries are the next largest spenders. From 2017 to 2022, the fastest-growing sectors for robotics spending are expected to be wholesale (31.4%), retail (29.6%), and construction (28.1%). IDC predicts that retail will overtake consumer spending on robotics systems by 2022.

“According to a 2018 IDC survey, manufacturers across major markets are prioritizing industrial robots as a technology investment,” said Zhang Jing Bing, research director for IDC’s Robotics division. “While the U.S.-China trade war may hinder market growth in the short term, we expect growth to pick up starting in 2020.”

“The commercial service robotics market will grow 20 percent annually over the next five years,” said John Santagate, research director for IDC’s Commercial Service Robotics research. “This growth will be driven by the increasing adoption of autonomous mobile robots and collaborative robots to improve productivity and efficiency.”

In the drone market, hardware investment is expected to dominate, with drone and aftermarket drone hardware accounting for over 90% of spending. Consumer drones are expected to account for approximately 40% of drone spending in 2019, while service drones are expected to account for 18%. Similar to robotics systems, drone software spending is primarily driven by command and control applications and drone-specific applications. Services spending is projected to grow fastest in the education and training sector (35.9%), followed by software (33.9%) and hardware (30.1%).
Consumer spending on drones is expected to reach $5.1 billion in 2019, accounting for 40% of global spending. Industry-specific drone spending in 2019 is broken down into utilities ($1.4 billion), construction ($1.05 billion), and assembly manufacturing ($913 million). The industries expected to see the fastest growth over the forecast period are government (56%), education (51%), and retail (42.01%). IDC projects that the resource industry will overtake construction and assembly manufacturing to become the second-largest industry for drone spending by 2022.

“The market is working to simplify the use and integration of drones,” said Stacey Soohoo, research manager for IDC Customer Insights & Analysis. “Drones are developing new technologies that combine 3D mapping and autonomous driving capabilities, along with rapid improvements in battery performance and air traffic management systems.”

He added, "Drone users continue to look for drone solutions that are easy to implement in a variety of situations, safe, cost-effective, and reusable."

From a regional perspective, China is expected to be the largest market for robotics systems and drones, reaching $38.5 billion in 2019, up from $36.1 billion in 2018. Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan and China) is projected to follow with $23.3 billion, the United States with $17.2 billion, and Western Europe with $13 billion. The United States is expected to be the largest drone market in 2019, with spending of $4.8 billion. China is projected to experience the fastest spending growth in both robotics systems and drones, with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.6% and 63.5%, respectively.