WatchGuard Video, a privately-held law enforcement technology manufacturer, announced today that the company holds the number one market share position for U.S. sales of digital in-car video systems used by law enforcement.
According to WatchGuard, the company's 2009 revenue is up an additional 15 percent for the year and its net profit is up 50 percent, all of this during a period where the industry has declined by an estimated 20 percent this year.
By the company's estimate, even with about 20 companies competing in this market, nearly one in four systems sold in the U.S. today are third generation WatchGuard DV-1s.
When the WatchGuard DV-1, a DVD-based digital police in-car video system, was first announced nearly five years ago, there was some skepticism in the marketplace as to the viability of a DVD-based solution for the law enforcement industry. And most manufacturers were unwilling to invest the extreme R&D expense required to solve the daunting complication of burning a DVD in a moving vehicle-one of the more complex hurdles to clear for this type of product.
"From WatchGuard's perspective, a direct-to-DVD solution was clearly the most efficient approach, especially for large police agencies such as state patrols whose geographic territory and sheer officer count made a centralized server solution impractical and astronomically expensive," says Robert Vanman, CEO and president of WatchGuard Video. "We believed that if we could pull off this technical feat, we would dominate the market, which is what we have done."
Some of the largest and most significant agencies in the U.S. are patrons of the WatchGuard DV-1, including the California Highway Patrol (CHP), Texas Highway Patrol (DPS), Illinois State Police, Minnesota State Patrol, Georgia State Police, Kansas Highway Patrol, Louisiana State Police, and nearly a dozen additional state agencies. More than 3,000 other state, county, and local agencies also use the WatchGuard DV-1 as their exclusive in-car video solution as well. "While becoming number one in sales is exciting, we are even more pleased with the extremely high customer satisfaction levels that recent customer satisfaction surveys have demonstrated", said Vanman.
WatchGuard continues to regularly upgrade its product line, and system firmware upgrades are provided free for the life of the product. In the coming months, WatchGuard is planning to release the much anticipated DV-1 Version 6.0 software, which includes the industry's first "record-after-the-fact" functionality. "Version 6.0 will separate the DV-1 from competing products even further with a feature set that is compelling and simple to use. We believe even more agencies will conclude that the WatchGuard DV-1 is impossible to beat", says Vanman.