What: Shares of body camera and Taser manufacturer TASER International, Inc. (AXON 2.64%) dropped as much as 15% today after a big competitor entered the market.
So what: Motorola Solutions Inc (MSI 0.09%) announced today that it is launching a three-in-one product including a video camera, radio speaker, and microphone as well as cloud-based content management. This would compete directly with TASER's camera products, which have dominated the body camera space over the last few years.
There are also rumors in the market that the Chicago PD will choose Motorola's solution over TASER's, which would be a big loss, but that isn't yet confirmed.
Now what: TASER has been making steady progress growing its body camera products around the country, so it's no surprise that a competitor such as Motorola is entering the market. Before reading too much into this new competition, I would like to see how TASER's revenue is trending in the second half of 2015 and into 2016, because I think it will still be the dominant player in this market.
There's also likely enough business for more than one body camera company, so this may not be all that big a deal in the first place. This looks like a panic sell-off by investors today, and I wouldn't jump ship until operations take a turn for the worse -- and I don't see that happening at the moment.
