Consumers spent $24 billion buying and renting DVD and VHS titles in 2004, more than twice as much as they did buying tickets at movie theater box offices, according to the Video Software Dealers Association's (VSDA) 2005 Annual Report. The major studios generated $21 billion from home video in 2004, representing 47 percent of their combined worldwide film revenues. Estimates of consumer spending on used DVDs and videocassettes for 2004 ranged from $658 million to $2 billion. The VSDA said that 73 percent of U.S. households had the capacity to view a DVD by the end of 2004, while VCR penetration declined for the first time during the period. The group also said that 2004 video game rentals totaled $700 million, adding that 53 percent of all games rented were rated "E" (Everyone). Mass merchants had a 50 percent market share of sell-through consumer spending on home video. The top three rental chains (Blockbuster, Hollywood, and Movie Gallery) collected more than 50 percent of consumer dollars spent on video rental transactions. Video-on-demand was available in approximately 22 million U.S. households. Digital video recorders were in fewer than 7 million U.S. households.
Ultra-Wideband (UWB) is quietly becoming one of the most strategic short-range wireless technologies in the market, moving from niche deployments into the mainstream of smartphones, cars, and smart spaces. As the ecosystem matures and next-generation implementations arrive, UWB is shifting from nice-to-have to a foundational capability for secure access, sensing, and high-performance device-to-device connectivity. UWB Technology Market Development Unlike Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, or legacy IEEE 802.15.4 implementations, UWB combines three powerful attributes in a single radio: secure ranging, radar-like sensing, and low-latency, high-throughput short-range data. This allows networking and IT vendors to architect experiences that blend precise location, context awareness, and rich interaction in ways traditional connectivity stacks cannot easily match. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, UWB is expected to be one of the fastest-growing wireless connectivity...