Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) and Free-to-Air Satellite TV services will give the PC TV tuner market a huge boost over the next several years, reports In-Stat. By 2009, the worldwide retail value of the PC-TV Tuner market is expected to reach US$ 3.7 billion, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 42.6 percent. "Personal computers with a TV Tuner provide a wide range of features and functions that enable the emerging market for connected digital homes," says Gerry Kaufhold, In-Stat analyst. "A race among Pay-TV services, Consumer Electronics manufacturers, and the PC industry eventually favors the PC industry. The PC industry moves more quickly, and can ride Moore's Law and Microsoft's software into more market segments more quickly than the other competitors." Microsoft's Media Center Edition (MCE) Multimedia PCs are now gaining market traction in over 30 countries around the world. Microsoft's next-generation Longhorn Operating System is likely to have a dramatic impact on the Multimedia PC world similar to what Windows 95 had on the home computer business 10 years ago. Free-to-Air TV provides "Content" that consumers can record to their PC's hard disk drive, edit, and "burn" onto DVDs for personal archiving with no monthly fees. PC-TV Tuner products also enable "capturing" video from camcorders, VCRs, and other sources. Apple's move to Intel's mobile PC platform sets the stage for intense, head-to-head competition for in-home digital entertainment PCs. Digital Terrestrial TV services require continual updating and upgrading of PC-TV Tuner software, which favors the larger, financially established PC-TV Tuner companies.
Gartner's latest worldwide IT spending forecast exposes a trend every CIO has already felt in budget negotiations. Total spending will climb 14.2 percent in 2026, reaching $6.37 trillion. It seems that the IT infrastructure market is simply having a strong year. However, the more useful insight is how unevenly that growth is distributed. The Headline Number vs. The Real Story Data center systems and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) are absorbing capital at a pace several multiples faster than devices, communications services, and traditional IT services. This is not incremental growth spread across a healthy portfolio. It is a wholesale reallocation of enterprise technology budgets toward AI infrastructure, made on the expectation that demand for AI workloads will justify the outlay before that demand has been fully proven. Where the Money is Going Data center systems are forecast to grow 62.5 percent in 2026, that's up from 51.6 percent growth in 2025, reaching $822 billion....