Digital Lifescapes

The apparent saturation of pay-TV subscribers in North American and Western European markets has troubled set-top box vendors for some time. They have had to look elsewhere for new upside opportunities. As an example, while the number of U.S. households that subscribe to  pay-TV service has remained flat during the last two years, those subscribers who are struggling with economic pressures are more likely to switch providers or totally cancel service, according to a recent report from Leichtman Research Group. As a result, emerging markets have become the new high-growth potential opportunity. However, the emerging market environment is very different from the traditional pay-TV arena. It has economic demands that many mainstream device manufacturers simply can't meet. A jump in cable and satellite set-top box shipments in Asia-Pacific markets is being driven by cable digitization in India and China -- as well as China's roll-out of digital satellite boxes to its ...

Partly driven by the desire to be connected anywhere, anytime -- and to have access to every type of content -- the consumer electronics (CE) industry continues to develop new mobile communication and computing platforms. A key dynamic of this change is the consumer desire for a rich visual experience on any size screen. This experience continues to push the limits of current mobile System-on-a-Chip (SoC) capabilities and makes the graphics processing unit (GPU) one of the most critical components in the design and differentiation of the SoC and consumer devices. According to the latest market study by NPD In-Stat , they now forecast that these trends will push the mobile SoC TAM to over 3.1 billion devices in 2015 -- that's up from 2 billion in 2010. Devices that may require a mobile SoC include cellphones, smartphones, netbook PCs, media tablets, digital still cameras, mp3 players, personal navigation devices, e-readers, handheld game consoles, digital camcorders, and porta...