Impressive DBS Growth Offers Encouragement for Telcos Deploying Video -- According to Yankee Group estimates, "direct broadcast satellite (DBS) operators DIRECTV and EchoStar had a combined total of 24.8 million subscribers at the end of 2004, up from 21.6 million a year earlier. DIRECTV gained 1.7 million subscribers while EchoStar gained 1.4 million. Although population growth drove part of this growth, much of it has come at the expense of cable. In the same time frame, we estimate that cable operators lost between 600,000 and 800,000 subscribers. Although troubled cable companies Adelphia and Charter accounted for about half of those losses, others including Time Warner, Insight and Mediacom also lost a substantial number of subscribers."
The global smartphone market closed 2025 with a story less about recovery and more about transformation. Premium product, ecosystem lock-in, and manufacturing scale are now the forces shaping competition. For business and technology leaders, the latest IDC market study data confirms that smartphones remain a critical indicator of consumer demand, supply chain health, and AI commercialization at the edge. Smartphone Market Development Global smartphone shipments grew 2.3 percent year-over-year in Q4 2025, reaching 336.3 million units and bringing full-year volumes to 1.26 billion units — a modest 1.9 percent annual increase, according to IDC. This smartphone growth emerged despite a memory shortage crisis, tariff volatility, supply chain disruption, and macroeconomic headwinds. What stabilized demand? Two factors: sustained growth in premium devices and strong foldable momentum, combined with accelerated purchases as consumers bought ahead of anticipated price increases. Buyers weren...