Cognitive Market Research: Pager market expected to recover at 5.9% annual growth

As mobile phones have become the world's primary means of communication, demand for pagers has fallen sharply from their peak in the 1990s and has become largely obsolete. However, the small devices still play an important role in certain areas such as healthcare and emergency services, thanks to their durability and long battery life.

A senior surgeon at a well-known British hospital said: "Pagers are the most economical and efficient way to send messages to a large number of people without requiring a reply." He also added that in the UK National Health Service (NHS), doctors and nurses generally use pagers to arrange their work, such as notifying location, time and specific tasks.

Thousands of pagers exploded simultaneously across Lebanon on Tuesday, killing at least nine people and injuring nearly 3,000. The explosives in the devices may have been planted by Israeli spy agencies, according to a senior Lebanese security official and another source.

According to UK government data from 2019, the NHS used around 130,000 pagers at the time, more than a tenth of the world's total, although more recent statistics are not yet available.

In hospital emergency departments, doctors often carry pagers with them when on duty. A senior NHS doctor pointed out that many pagers have an alert function that can broadcast voice messages to the entire medical team immediately, ensuring a rapid response to emergencies, which is not possible with smartphones.

In addition, because pagers lack modern navigation technology such as GPS and are more difficult to track than smartphones, they have historically been the communication tool of choice for criminals, particularly drug dealers in the United States.

However, former FBI agent Ken Gray said that criminal gangs now use more mobile phones and frequently change numbers, which greatly increases the difficulty of tracking. He said: "I don't know if anyone is still using pagers now. Many criminal gangs have turned to mobile phones, especially disposable phones."

Gray, who worked at the FBI for 24 years and is now a professor of criminal justice and homeland security at the University of New Haven, said criminals have been changing their methods to take advantage of technological advances.

A report by market research firm Cognitive Market Research shows that although the global pager market was once the main source of revenue for companies such as Motorola, by 2023, its market size will be only US$1.6 billion, which is insignificant compared to the global smartphone market valued at US$500 billion by the end of 2023.

However, the report also points out new growth points in the pager market. With the increase in the number of patients in the medical field, the demand for efficient communication tools continues to increase. The pager market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 5.9% between 2023 and 2030. Among them, North America and Europe are the two largest pager markets, contributing $528 million and $496 million in revenue, respectively. (Xiaoxiao)

From NetEase Technology