Although still in the early-adopter stage, the overall market size for media adapters will be limited, reports In-Stat. In a best-case scenario, we see worldwide standalone media adapter shipments growing by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 76 percent from 2004 through 2009, the high-tech market research firm says. "Vendors are convinced there will be an ongoing market for adapters as long as analog home entertainment equipment is sold and used. On the other hand, consumer electronics vendors are planning to integrate media adapter technology directly into consumer electronics devices, eliminating the need for a bridge between a PC or media center and a device." The iPod has been a significant factor in the emergence of the market for media adapters, with Apple at the forefront. In order to drive the market for Media Center Extenders, Media Center Edition 2005 (MCE) PC's need to become more available worldwide. The number of PC manufacturers offering MCE PCs is increasing rapidly. Developing consumer awareness will be an evolutionary process with vendors expecting increased interest by the broader consumer market to develop over the next couple of years.
The prevailing narrative around artificial intelligence (AI) has been one of relentless scale. Bigger models, bigger clusters, bigger budgets. The assumption, largely unchallenged until recently, was that raw parameter count translated directly into competitive advantage. New research from Omdia suggests it's time to retire that assumption. According to the latest market study by Omdia, parameter growth in frontier AI models has slowed to around 5 percent annually since 2021, a stark contrast to the more than hundredfold expansion seen between 2019 and 2021. Enterprise AI Market Development For executives who have been making infrastructure and investment decisions based on the assumption that AI would keep demanding ever-larger, ever-more-expensive hardware, this finding deserves serious attention. The race to the top of the model size leaderboard has, at least for now, plateaued. Crucially, Omdia's analysts are not reading this as an AI winter. Alexander Harrowell, senior pri...