Asia-Pacific Set-Top Box Shipments to Grow 12% Annually through 2014

 "As in so many other things, China is the powerhouse that is driving STB shipment and revenue numbers in the Asia-Pacific region," says industry analyst Michael Inouye. "Within China, one of the main sources of STB segment growth is its target of completing the transition to digital cable and terrestrial TV in 2015. While expectations remained mixed about the feasibility of that aim, China appears to be focused on 2015 as an achievable target. That translates to a lot of cable boxes."

While much of the Chinese market demand will be met by domestic vendors, some foreign companies want part of the action. Late last year, for example, Cisco acquired the cable STB unit of Chinese vendor DVN.

In addition the satellite market in India continues to show strong growth potential and while HD services launched in 2009, HD is expected to spread at a relatively slower pace. In contrast, while most STBs have similarly been basic boxes in China, support for HD terrestrial broadcasts was higher than expected suggesting a potentially significant shift to HD boxes in the future for DTT and potentially other platforms as well.

"Set-Top Box Shipments" includes CATV, DBD, IPTV, DTT Subscribers by Region; STB shipments and market value, ASPs for STBs, and data on STB decoder shipments, segmented by compression standard (MPEG-2, MPEG-4). It forms part of the firm’s Digital Media Research Service, which also includes other Market Data products, Research Reports and Research Briefs, ABI Insights, ABI Vendor Matrices, and analyst inquiry support.

ABI Research provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies. From offices in North America, Europe and Asia, ABI Research’s worldwide team of experts advise thousands of decision makers through 28 research and advisory services. Est. 1990. For more information visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.