On CE

DisplaySearch reports pocket projectors will grow from 500,000 ($117m in revenues) in 2009 to 142m units ($13.9 billion) in 2018, a 70% CAGR for revenues and 88% in units.

"There were over 130 new pocket projector models released in the market in 2009, along with the first releases of embedded projectors into the market. Despite this, pocket projectors still face challenges of low brightness, short battery life and high price. Continuing progress in all the technologies surrounding pocket projectors will be needed to achieve the expected growth," notes Jennifer Colegrove, Director of Display Technologies.

Now stand-alone devices dominate the pocket projector market which will reach 45m units and $8.9 billion in 2018. DisplaySearch says embedded/dedicated projector shipments will surpass stand-alone by 2014 (as limitations in consumption, size, brightness and price improve). Embedded pocket projectors will reach 97m units, $5 billion in 2018.

Go Display Search on Pocket Projectors

More than 20% of flat panel TVs shipped in Europe this year will be able to connect to the internet, says Futuresource Consulting.

By the end of 2010, the installed base of connected TVs will increase to 15 million devices, nearly 10% of the total number of flat panel TVs in use.

The next step for manufacturers, says Futuresource, will be to add more compelling video services, including paid-for movie streaming that will create revenue-sharing opportunities with content owners, aggregators and application developers.

Futuresource expects "sophisticated services", including major catch-up TV services and VoD services, to offer greater competition to the premium subscriptions offered by Pay TV operators.

"In Europe, four of the major brands have already launched connected TV products that go beyond basic home networking functionality and allow delivery of over-the-top web services," says David Watkins, research consultant at Futuresource.

"… Although initially limited to high-end and mid-range products, we're going to see web connectivity feature on an increasing number of products next year, becoming standard within two to three years...

"...We expect content to be the next battleground and a key driver for connection and usage, particularly through interaction with social networking sites and access to recently released movies."

Go Connected TV & Blu-ray Market: W.Europe

The Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) announces the results of a study into coaxial infrastructure in homes in the UK, France, Netherlands and Poland: there is a significant addressable market for coaxial cable-based home networking in these countries.

Results from the UK and France were very similar, with 56% and 55%, respectively, of respondents stating they had two or more coaxial outlets in their home, while more than a quarter of respondents in both countries indicated they have three or more.

In Poland, the results were even stronger, with 71% of respondents stating that they have two or more coaxial outlets and 36 per cent having three or more. The Netherlands recorded 45 per cent of households as having two or more outlets and 15 per cent having three or more. The four countries were chosen because of their competitive pay-TV environments, increasing penetration of HDTVs and DVRs, number of TVs per household and the high daily TV viewing hours.

"This survey helps us gain an understanding of the potential for MoCA," said Charles Cerino, President of MoCA. "The high percentage of homes having two or more coaxial outlets in these countries means that there is a significant addressable market opportunity for service providers wanting to offer advanced high bandwidth services with high reliability and without adding any new wires."

"The picture we get in the countries surveyed is that there are more outlets per home than had been presumed by the industry and that many consumers are willing to add extra coax drops as needed to enable a better TV experience throughout their home." says Stephen Froehlich, Senior Analyst, Consumer Electronics at IMS Research, who oversaw the research.

The online survey was carried out by IMS Research in February 2010 targeting respondents in the UK, France, The Netherlands and Poland. The sample size was statistically significant at 95% confidence level. These results cannot be extrapolated across other parts of Europe, and that additional research is needed.

MoCA is willing to work with operators in Europe that may be interested in replicating this study in their footprint.

Go Multimedia over Coax Alliance

Sonic will buy DivX for cash and stock for about $320 million in cash and stock. Both businesses want to evolve past the imminent death of the DVD, the mainstay for business for both companies.

Hardware licensees still accounts for about 70% of DivX revenue (at least last year's).Sonic makes software that movie studios and others use to author DVDs and other forms of content. It also sells programs consumers use to burn CDs and DVDs (under the Roxio brand, as well as a popular Macintosh’sToast). Both benefit from Blu-ray, but Blu-ray has not yet compensated for a recent drop in DVD sales. Sonic purchased CinemaNow, a pioneer in the movie-download business. Now Best Buy and Blockbuster use Sonic’s platform to offer a video service.

The DivX technologies are expected to give Sonic a more extensive solution for Internet video delivery including the dominant tools for content preparation in "the cloud," video playback, and Hollywood-approved DRM.

DivX adds leverage to Sonic's strategy of CE deployment – the DivX player and DRM is deployed in products from more than 150 different CE manufacturers WW on millions of devices.

Go Sonic Buys DivX, Not Everybody Happy