I was asked at a recent PROFINET one-day training class why we didn’t compare PROFINET to SERCOS III. I answered lamely that we just didn’t encounter it and besides it was a motion control-only bus while PROFINET is a very comprehensive bus of which motion control is only one part. Today I stumbled upon an article in the Industrial Ethernet Book (“Exclusive report with market share projections”) showing Industrial Ethernet market shares as compiled by IMS Research. The SERCOS III market share was shown as 0.0%. I guess that explains why we seldom encounter it.
That was the uninteresting part of the pie chart. The interesting part: It showed Ethernet/IP with a slight lead over PROFINET. This does not jive with the numbers published by ODVA and PI. Through the end of 2008, both organizations reported 1.6 million nodes installed. We reported in an article in PROFInews North American Edition: “PROFINET Node Count Announced for 2008.” ODVA reported in a press release at the SPS/IPC/Drives show.
So I think the Industrial Ethernet market shares break down to an even split of one third each for PROFINET, Ethernet/IP, and “other.”
–Carl Henning