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| Friday, 26 October 2007 | |
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Motorola execs and boffins chew online entertainment fat…
A group of Motorola ‘…business leaders, technologists and marketing experts…’ recently convened an internal ‘trendstorm’ where they discussed the latest and upcoming innovations in Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) for 2008 – and beyond. Citing research company Parks Associates Motorola says the market for IPTV is increasing at a rapid pace. “At year-end 2006, there were 4.6mn residential IPTV subscribers,” according to Parks Associate industry analyst Kurt Scherf. “This number will grow to nearly 60mn by year-end 2011. We forecast annual shipments of IPTV set-top boxes to be 7mn in 2007 and exceed 20mn by year-end 2011. To capitalise on this market growth, telcos should focus on embracing user-generated and social media to differentiate their services.” “In 2007, we really started to see the promise of IPTV fulfilled. For example, it took a few years for Motorola to reach the one millionth IPTV set top box shipment; we then doubled the number of shipments in five short months,” added Doug Means, Motorola corporate vice president and general manager, Home and Networks Mobility. “Building on the momentum of IPTV adoption, we see a number of applications coming into the picture as ‘the next big thing.’” Included here were: · Content portability: the proliferation of mobile devices where video is available virtually anytime, anywhere is being carried over to the home environment. Whole-home DVR – pausing in one room and picking up the programme in another room – is promising to be a potentially popular application for IPTV. · Increased content availability: via a switched digital video environment and bandwidth optimising features such as MPEG-4 compression technology, IPTV promises expanded content choices for consumers. For example, niche market content like university- or league-specific, hobby or ethnic programming that may not have been included in traditional broadcast environments, will start to find homes – and viewers – in an all-switched digital video environment that allows an array of channels and choices from providers. · Personalisation and localisation: in an all IP-environment, each customer-premise equipment (CPE) device, like set tops, has an IP address. Accordingly, information specified and defined by the user can be provided as a customised content overlay. For example, IPTV consumers can receive personalised stock, weather, sports and other information directly on their TV. · Targeted advertising: TV advertising is changing from broadcast to unicast. Advanced advertising technology will allow consumers to receive localised information. For example, consumers could receive local dealer information when watching a car ad (using graphic overlay technology), obtain more information (launching a video on demand) or even click to request a test drive of the car from the local dealership. And in other IPTV news MRG this month announces the latest instalment of its ‘IPTV Market Leaders Report’, a document that tracks the top 120 IPTV vendors in 24 regional sub-sectors based on their installed base for 6 product areas in over 600 IPTV Operations and 8mn subscribers worldwide (Q3 2007 figure). “It’s far too early to call the IPTV market ‘mature,’” judged Len Feldman, director of IPTV Analysis for MRG, “but the industry is definitely becoming less volatile. In our last February ’07 report, 50% of the number one companies changed; but in this one, less than 20% of the number ones changed.” Yet, according to MRG, some volatility continues due to large increases in subscriptions (as seen at Verzion, France Telecom, Neuf Cegetel, Belgacom and Telefónica), and growing influence of Chinese vendors like Huawei, ZTE, and UTStarcom. Another important shift is Alcatel-Lucent’s number one global position in middleware which is based on its own (non-Microsoft) middleware products. First-place industry leaders are expanding their lead, as illustrated by large companies like Motorola and Alcatel-Lucent. Yet, says the research company, there is room for small companies in most product areas, due to large regional and local variations in market demands, as illustrated by small companies such as Verimatrix and Kasenna, each of them global leaders. The report also anticipates growth potential that can be very important to small companies with installations in high-growth operations like China Netcom or Belgacom. The MRG number one companies for top share-of-market in the six global IPTV categories are: Alcatel-Lucent (Access); Motorola (Video head-end); Alcatel-Lucent (Middleware); Kasenna (VoD); Motorola (Set top boxes); and Verimatrix (Content Protection/ Digital Rights Management). John Williamson |
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