Market Trends

Scottsdale,Ariz, October 12, 2010--The worldwide market for digital set-top boxes - including hard-to-track free-to-air (FTA) satellite (DBS) boxes - will grow from 205 million in 2010 to 226 million in 2015. Shipments in North America and Western Europe are falling following largely successful digital transitions, while Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Eastern Europe all see significant growth. Set-top boxes in China will grow at nearly 10% per year (CAGR).

Scottsdale, Ariz., Oct. 6, 2010-The 3D TV market will spend the next couple of years establishing itself and accumulating a base of content and devices (both TVs and Blu-ray players). In 2013, according to ABI Research, market growth will start to accelerate, and shipments of 3D TV sets will approach 50 million in 2015.

Hong Kong, September 20, 2010– Broadband has taken a significant step forward as the number of subscriber lines passed the 500 million mark in July 2010.  The milestone was revealed as the Broadband Forum provided its global Broadband and IPTV Industry Update at its quarterly meeting in Hong Kong today. Research by industry analysts Point Topic (http://www.point-topic.com) pinpointed the actual date as being in the third week in July and the Broadband Forum will mark the occasion with a Milestone Celebration later this week.

Singapore, September 1, 2010-- The Asia-Pacific GPS Navigation and LBS market to rise to $3.16 billion in 2014, a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 50.7%, according to a recent report by Research and Markets.   The Asia-Pacific will account for 23.6% of the world market share for GPS Navigation and LBS spend in 2014.

Charlottesville, VA, August 2, 2010—In a recent analysis of the Asia-Pacific broadband market SNL Kagan found that despite recessionary pressures, the region’s broadband subscriber base grew 17.7% to 181.4 million in 2009 compared to 154.1 million in 2008, with a household penetration of 22.2% at year-end 2009. SNL Kagan forecasts the market will continue to grow, increasing from 208.8 million households at year-end 2010 to 352.5 million by 2015, a five-year CAGR of 11%.

 Amman, Jordan, July 15, 2010—As of the  end of June 2010, 26 out of 55 operators licensed to offer WiMAX offered the service. WiMAX is commercially available in Algeria, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and the UAE. Moreover, Yemen and Oman are slated to WiMAX services in the second half of 2010. 

San Jose, CA, July 15,2010—The Multimedia Research Group, Inc. (MRG) announced that its updated report on global annual growth shows IPTV subscribers will reach 102 million in 2014, a 25% CAGR. Despite economic hardship in some countries, robust Broadband and IPTV investments have been driving growth as a means to meet and outperform Cable and Satellite competition. IPTV Operators are using Fiber in high-competition markets and advanced DSL such as channel bonding and VDSL2 in other (less competitive) markets. As a result, Telcos have been discreetly improving their IPTV bandwidth capacity to sub-markets that need upgrades without overspending in markets that don’t require immediate upgrading.

by Virgil Labrador, Editor-in-Chief

Singapore, June 18, 2010--This year's CommunicAsia in Singapore held earlier this month had a different feel to it. I've been attending CommunicAsia for nearly 15 years now and there was an air of optimism that was borne by real prospects in this growing market.

Singapore, June 16, 2010--Broadband subscription growth took an upswing during the first quarter of 2010, supported in part by healthy DSL growth in every region, strong fiber rollouts in Asia and aggressive IPTV service offerings. These statistics were revealed today by the Broadband Forum at a CommunicAsia press conference, in conjunction with research by industry analysts Point Topic. 

Singapore, June 7, 2010--More than 719 million pay-TV subscribers are expected to sign up in 2010 as the economic recovery continues to gain momentum, according to latest forecasts from ABI Research. Digital Home industry analyst Michael Inouye notes, "ABI Research estimates that worldwide pay-TV subscriber numbers will surpass 719 million by the end of 2010 as novel solutions such as Google TV move from trial to commercial launch."