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SuperSpeed USB will Enable Digital Media Transfer

As the number of consumer electronic (CE) devices and their capabilities continue to evolve and converge, many require significantly more communication bandwidth to provide the quality interactive experience users have come to expect.

SuperSpeed USB brings significant performance enhancements to the ubiquitous USB standard, while remaining compatible with the billions of USB-enabled devices currently deployed in the market. The additional throughput is required to accommodate the need to transfer large digital media files between devices.

According to the latest market study by NPD In-Stat, they now forecast that SuperSpeed USB-enabled device shipments are on a fast track and will surpass 1 billion in 2014, that's up from 70 million in 2011.

"Because the throughput of SuperSpeed USB, ten times that of high-speed USB, is not required in some devices, adoption will not initially be as broad as for full- and high-speed USB," says Brian O’Rourke, Research Director at NPD In-Stat.

That said, SuperSpeed USB will gain significant initial penetration in markets requiring transfers of increasingly larger pools of data.

This process is already well underway, as evidenced in the USB Implementer Forum December announcement that Intel's 7 Series PC Chipset and C216 PC Chipset family achieved SuperSpeed USB certification -- guaranteeing increased SuperSpeed penetration of the PC market.

Other insights from the market study include:
  • Low-Speed and Full-Speed USB attach rates for keyboards will be 81 percent in 2013.
  • Notebook PCs will be the single largest device that will ship with SuperSpeed USB capability in 2015.
  • High-Speed USB-enabled device shipments will peak in 2012.
  • In 2015, 5.5 billion devices will ship with some type of USB capability.

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