A leading market research firm covering the bar-code industry predicts that improvements to Charged Couple Device (CCD) scanners could result in higher sales of those products for data-collection applications. Although laser bar-code scanners will remain the mainstay for data collection, Venture Development Corp. (VDC) of Natick, Mass., says the emergence of higher-performance models of CCD scanners at lower prices could win more sales.

Laser scanners have historically been able to read bar codes from longer distances than their CCD counterparts could. But VDC notes that equipment manufacturers have significantly improved the read range, scan rate, and depth of field of both linear CCDs and CCD/CMOS imagers. Linear CCD scanners read only linear-type bar codes, while their cousins, CCD/CMOS imagers, can read both two-dimensional and linear bar codes. Essentially, both types of scanners take a snapshot of a bar code and then analyze it.

To increase their market share, VDC notes, CCD suppliers will have to be more aggressive in marketing their products. "CCD suppliers need to develop more effective end-user education programs, detailing the performance/price position of CCD scanners relative to laser scanners."

VDC outlined its bullish forecast for CCD scanners in its recent market study, The 2001 Global AIDC Industry Business Planning Service. In that report, VDC said that the global market for handheld bar-code scanners amounted to $937.4 million in 2000 and that the industry shipped 5.4 million units worldwide that year.

Laser bar-code scanners accounted for 64.1 percent of all handheld terminals sold in 2000. Sales of linear CCD units, on the other hand, represented 24.7 percent of the market, while CCD/CMOS imagers accounted for a 4.2-percent share. Pen/wand devices captured the remainder of the market, with a 7.0-percent market share.

VDC adds that it expects market growth for the year 2001 to be flat because of poor economic conditions in North America. Despite flat growth, revenue for equipment suppliers is expected to increase by 5.0 to 7.0 percent.