Embedded Boards, Modules & Systems

Inside this Report

The embedded hardware market is extremely fragmented in its composition of product form factors, customer profiles/demographics, end user industries/applications, and competitive landscape. Engineering organizations, including OEMs/ODMs, system integrators, service providers, and enterprise/industrial end users themselves, all have different requirements and preferences for embedded hardware platforms used for their product development. As a result, the embedded boards, modules, and integrated systems markets each feature distinct growth opportunities addressing the evolving nature of embedded and edge computing architectures as well as rosters of competing vendors vying for new designs and engineering projects.

This market research study examines the leading market trends impacting the total revenue opportunity as well as the competitive landscape for a wide variety of embedded component and system form factors, including computer- on-modules, system-on-modules, motherboards, single-board computers, integrated computing systems and servers, and others. This report delivers research-driven commentary on the biggest developments and players influencing the commercial embedded hardware market and its future supplier ecosystem. The report is accompanied by leading vendor market share data for each form factor under study and for the integrated computing systems and server market segmented by vertical market as well as Voice of the Engineer survey data.

What Questions are Addressed?

• How large is the total addressable market opportunity and outlook for merchant embedded boards, modules, integrated systems, and embedded/OEM servers?
• Who are the leading suppliers for different form factors of merchant embedded modules, motherboards, single-board computers, integrated systems, and embedded/OEM servers?
• What are the key product, service, and corporate differentiators of leading providers in the market and which will be most important for gaining share over the next five years?
• Which selection criteria are most important to engineering organizations of different types when sourcing different embedded hardware form factors?

Who Should Read this Report?

This report was written for those making critical decisions regarding product, market, channel, and competitive strategy and tactics. This report is intended for senior decision-makers who are developing, or are a part of the ecosystem of, IoT, embedded, and/or edge computing solutions, including:

Technology Suppliers in this Report:

... and many others.

Demand-side Research Overview

VDC launches numerous surveys of the IoT and embedded engineering ecosystem every year using an online survey platform. Our global Voice of the Engineer survey in 2024 captured insights from a total of 600 qualified respondents. To support this research, VDC leverages its in-house panel of over 30,000 individuals from various roles and industries across the world. This survey was used to inform our insight into key trends, preferences, and predictions within the engineering community.

Executive Summary

The embedded hardware market is hotly contested with a variety of established players and new organizations joining the fray to diversify their businesses via access to a healthy marketspace that features strong long-term growth prospects. Edge computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), computer vision, operational AI, and machine learning will remain critical market growth drivers over the next several years, enabling highly valuable solution capabilities and services for end users in operational environments. Although embedded hardware deployment lifetimes remain protracted and still extend beyond a decade (or even a few decades) in some safety-/mission- critical applications, the pace of innovation in the market has accelerated on the back of rapid advancements in processor technology, edge AI models, workload optimization, and cloud-native software development. Engineering organizations of various origins, types, sizes, and target markets will continue to demand a wide range of hardware platforms and development solutions that no single vendor can completely satisfy on their own.

Competition in the embedded boards, modules, and integrated systems market is multi-dimensional, with several different technical and business elements separating the market leaders from the rest. From a technical perspective, embedded hardware providers continue to compete on core metrics such as performance, power consumption, size/weight/area, pre-certification, and price. However, new considerations related to dedicated workload performance, accelerator integration/support, embedded security, connectivity enablement, and a growing list of other factors are changing the status quo. On the business/strategic side, a trusted supply chain extending from embedded hardware inception to deployment is crucial for preserving the integrity of the final deployed systems or infrastructure. Many engineering organizations also require the tier 1 business services commonly associated with leading enterprise/IT technology suppliers that are also serving the embedded/OEM market.

The embedded hardware space and its competitive landscape are changing at an unprecedented rate in response to the rapid evolution of developer/engineer requirements, device/system stacks, and the associated large and growing revenue opportunity enabling IoT, embedded, and edge computing solutions.

Key Findings:

• The total addressable market for merchant embedded boards, modules, and system/servers worldwide amounted to more than $36B in 2023.
• The embedded hardware market for all form factors is highly fragmented with a long tail of smaller suppliers focused on supporting the development of specific target system types or OT applications.
• Only a few organizations have established leadership across multiple embedded hardware market form factors, such as Advantech, ADLINK, Kontron, Mercury Systems, and Supermicro.
• Several leading embedded/OEM system and server providers, such as Dell Technologies, HPE, IBM, Lenovo, and Supermicro, continue to bring product and technology advancements from the enterprise/HPC domains to their edge computing solutions.
• VDC's Voice of the Engineer survey results indicate that the importance of software support/compatibility, product availability, networking capabilities, and process technology vary considerably between different engineering communities and form factors.