Informa Telecoms & Media has announced its predictions for 2010, encompassing widgets, mobile and pay-TV.
The research firm said that widgets will become the key to harnessing power of the mobile web, with mobile phone vendors playing a role in enabling content creation and offering services through application stores, the internet, and ‘widgetization’.
Informa also predicts that fixed broadband operators will experiment with new business models in a bid to end the ‘arms race’ of increasing speeds and declining prices.
Looking specifically at North America, Informa said that pay TV revenues there will peak in 2010, with Western Europe following suit in 2011.
Elsewhere, IPTV operators will embrace ‘over-the-top’ TV and open internet apps, with many of the projects currently on the drawing board ready to launch by 2011, if not 2010.
Screen Digest recently predicted that an open IPTV platform, like Project Canvas, will reach 3.5 million homes by 2014.
HDTV will reach the tipping point but platforms still need to increase channels to win over subscribers, said Informa. “Providing only a handful of HD channels is not enough to make for a successful package.”
Mark Newman, Informa Telecoms & Media’s chief research officer, said: “We selected the most compelling and critical predictions from across all our research areas and these emerging trends indicate that priorities, markets, competitive landscapes and technologies are all rapidly changing.”
“We are beginning to see signs of economic recovery and predict that telecoms and media players can look forward to sustained, slow revenue growth in 2010. However, the dominance of the internet and the transition from hardware to software and services means that the landscape is becoming increasingly competitive and companies will need to shift their strategies and implement cost cutting measures to survive these new market dynamics.”