Skip to main content

Will the Demand for PC-TV Tuners Recover?

Demand for PC-TV tuners has fallen off from the 2008 levels due to the worldwide economic recession, according to the latest study by In-Stat. Perhaps broadcast signal reception quality is also still an issue -- that was my prior personal experience with analog tuners.

The market also faces fundamental challenges, including slow consumer demand, increased competition from online television and other programming sources, and lower prices due to a shift from hybrid analog/digital tuners to digital-only tuners.

One hopeful development is that Microsoft's Windows 7 and the new version of Media Center will apparently include better connectivity solutions for PC-TV Tuners.

"Opportunities for growth will be for hybrid analog/digital tuner manufacturers to increase share by lowering prices, or for new entrants to leapfrog the analog and hybrid segments by aggressively targeting the emerging digital-only segments, albeit with lower margins," says Gerry Kaufhold, In-Stat analyst.

I'm actually wondering if there's such a thing as a USB Digital-Only TV tuner that delivers consistently good quality reception on a notebook computer screen -- I'll gladly write a review of a product. Contact me directly if you represent a vendor, and can provide a review sample.

Overall, selling PC-TV tuners is going to be a tougher business going forward. Will the market fully recover? We'll have to wait and see.

In-Stat's market study found the following:

- 2009 unit shipments will see a net decline of nearly 11 percent. Moderate unit growth will resume in subsequent years, driven nearly exclusively by digital-only tuner shipments.

- Worldwide PC-TV Tuner revenue likely peaked in value during 2008, at about $1.4 billion.

- The European region is by far the largest geographic market for PC TV Tuners, representing more than 50 percent of worldwide revenue.

- PC Tuner growth in Notebooks will significantly outpace other segments, which include desktops, retail sticks, and retail add-in cards.

- ATSC M&H mobile video in the U.S. may create significant upside for digital-only tuners.

Popular posts from this blog

Open Banking Usage to Grow by 470 Percent

The Open Banking business model has been advantageous for Third-Party Providers (TPPs), helping them to extend their offerings into other areas of financial services with new capabilities. Open Banking is also advantageous for traditional banking institutions, despite the perceived loss of custodianship over their data, by providing greater accessibility to more bank services. Furthermore, Open Banking can help serve Mobile Internet providers that are able to leverage it to create tailored services according to customers’ preferences and/or economic limitations. Open Banking Market Development Since traditional banking services are made more convenient by TPPs via greater data access, customers can proactively manage their finances and shape the development of new financial offerings. This is particularly noticeable in the realm of Digital Payments, where retail merchants and customers transact through eCommerce, which has the greatest number of use cases for Open Banking. These includ

Mobile Device Market Still Awaiting Recovery

The mobile devices market has experienced three years of unpredictable demand. The global pandemic, geopolitical pressures, supply chain issues, and macroeconomic headwinds have hindered the sector's consistent growth potential. This extremely challenging environment has dramatically affected both demand and supply chains. It has led to subsequent inflationary pressures, leading to a worsening global cost of living crisis suppressing growth and confidence in the sector. In tandem, mobile device industry stakeholders have become more cautious triggering market uncertainties. Mobile Device Market Development Operating under such a backdrop, the development of mobile device ecosystems and vendor landscapes have been impacted severely. Many of these market pressures persisted throughout 2022 and now into 2023, borne chiefly by the smartphone market. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, worldwide smartphone shipments in 2022 declined 9.6 percent Year-over-Year

Digital Talent Demand Exceeds Supply in Asia-Pac

Even the savviest CEO's desire for a digital transformation advantage has to face the global market reality -- there simply isn't enough skilled and experienced talent available to meet demand. According to the latest market study by IDC, around 60-80 percent of Asia-Pacific (AP) organizations find it "difficult" or "extremely difficult" to fill many IT roles -- including cybersecurity, software development, and data insight professionals. Major consequences of the skills shortage are increased workload on remaining digital business and IT employees, increased security risks, and loss of "hard-to-replace" critical transformation knowledge. Digital Business Talent Market Development Although big tech companies' layoffs are making headlines, they are not representative of the overall global marketplace. Ongoing difficulty to fill key practitioner vacancies is still among the top issues faced by leaders across industries. "Skills are difficul