The European fire detection market is a large and mature market that is primarily driven by regulation and legislation. However, there are some exciting trends emerging in terms of application areas, technologies and shifts in competition. Recently, small manufacturers have been effectively gaining market shares against the large established leaders. This is largely attributed to their provision of low cost products that meet the basic standard requirements mainly for small and medium sized installations. Therefore, in order to remain competitive, large companies are being forced to continually re-assess the segments and sectors of the market where they can most effectively and profitably dominate.