[Satellite TODAY Insider 10-13-10] Research organizations IMS Research and ABI Research have released encouraging figures for global broadband providers and digital set-top box manufacturers in forecasts issued Oct. 11.
    IMS Research predicted in its “Convergence in the World Home Entertainment Market” report that more than 477 million households around the globe will subscribe to fixed broadband services by the end of 2010, with more than 3 billion mobile broadband-enabled devices, including smartphones, installed globally by the end of 2015.
    “Rollout of 3G networks, introduction of WiMax and LTE, and the growth of smartphones has created a new opportunity for CE (consumer electronics) suppliers and carriers. Cellular modems are starting to be integrated into a variety of devices and are currently most common in netbooks, tablets and e-book readers. As the number of CE devices with embedded modems grow, so will the opportunities for service providers to offer a variety of data plans and managed multi-screen services,” IMS Research Analyst Anna Hunt said in the report.
    In an ABI Research study, “Set Top Box Market Data,” the firm forecasts that the worldwide market for digital set-top boxes, including free-to-air satellite set-top boxes, will grow from 205 million in 2010 to 226 million in 2015. The report shows that while shipments in North America and Western Europe fell after regional digital transitions were completed, emerging markets in the Asia-Pacific, Latin American and Eastern European markets experienced significant growth, with set-top boxes shipments in China growing at a rate of nearly 10 percent per year.
    ABI Research Analyst Michael Inouye told Satellite TODAY Insider that home networking is the most significant departure from the usual market landscape. “While North America has made strides in establishing which networking technologies operators will embrace, other regions are still in the early stages of testing and trialing. This could mean some interesting developments a year or two down the road.”
    Strategically speaking, Inouye said that set-top box vendors increasingly would have to support a wider range of connectivity solutions and related services, presuming the desire to connect set-top boxes within the home continues to grow. “In other words, flexibility will be key. It is highly unlikely an entire region will select only one type of networking technology, nor will one initiative or platform be the only solution to bring broadband content with broadcast.”    

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