by Anton Shilov
06/11/2009 | 11:55 PM
Despite of switch to DTV in the U.S. later this month and similar switch in Europe in the coming years, the market of TV tuners for personal computers have a lot of challenges, one of which is global recession and another is Internet-based television services. According to In-Stat, sales of TV tuners for PCs will not grow compared to the year 2008, at least this year.
“Opportunities for growth will be for hybrid analog/digital tuner manufacturers to increase share by lowering prices, or for new entrants to leapfrog the analog and hybrid segments by aggressively targeting the emerging digital-only segments, albeit with lower margins. Overall, selling PC-TV Tuners is going to be a tougher business going forward,” says Gerry Kaufhold, In-Stat analyst.
Demand for PC-TV Tuners has fallen off from 2008’s level due to the worldwide economic recession, according to the market research firm. In fact, the worldwide PC-TV Tuner revenue likely peaked in value during 2008, at about $1.4 billion. At present, the European region is by far the largest geographic market for TV tuners for PCs, representing more than 50% of worldwide revenue.
The market also faces fundamental challenges, including slow consumer demand, increased competition from online television and other programming sources, and lower prices due to a shift from hybrid analog/digital tuners to digital-only tuners. According to In-Stat, ATSC M&H mobile video in the US may create significant upside for digital-only tuners. One hopeful development is that Microsoft’s Windows 7 and the new version of Media Center will include better connectivity solutions for PC-TV Tuners.
2009 unit shipments will see a net decline of nearly 11%. Moderate unit growth will resume in subsequent years, driven nearly exclusively by digital-only tuner shipments, which are less expensive, hence, it is unclear when the market reaches $1.4 billion again.
In-Stat reports that notebook PC tuner growth will significantly outpace other segments, which include desktops, retail sticks, and retail add-in cards.