The Ultrasound Market

The total imaging market for medical ultrasound was estimated to be approx. USD 4.4 billion in 2007. The largest areas of application within ultrasound today are abdomen (40 %), cardiology (25 %) and gynecology (20 %). For the coming years, the abdomen segment is expected to decline and the gynecology segment is expected to expand.  For the future, other segments, such as surgery, emergency, and intensive care, are expected to expand rapidly.

The ultrasound market is mostly dominated by Europe (37 %), North-America (29 %), and some Asian markets, such as Japan (24 %), and large parts of the world are still without ultrasound access. The ultrasound market is expected to expand rapidly due to new technologies (3D/4D-imaging and the introduction of hand-carried ultrasound devices (HCU)), user friendliness (low investments, little knowledge and training required, and no harm to patients), cost-reduction (new miniaturized technology and lower manufacturing costs) and macro trends (growth in applications (surgery, emergency, intensive care, etc.), demographic changes), and more advanced use of ultrasound.

The global ultrasound market is dominated by 4 large players: GE Healthcare (24 %), Philips Medical Systems (22 %), Toshiba (14 %) and Siemens (13 %). In addition to these large four, there are a lot of smaller participants, specializing in different applications. High-end ultrasound applications at the same level as MANUS are usually reserved for their own use by the large companies and are not available to other companies. The competition is thus limited to only 2-3 other OEM suppliers comparable to AUROTECH.