IP enabled CE devices will reach 2.5 billion in 2012

According to a new report by IMS Research, 2012 will be the year the consumer electronics (CE) industry finally realises the promise of multi-screen content consumption, as shipments of IP-enabled consumer electronics devices will approach 2.5 billion, rising to 3.5 billion in 2015.

“While the concept of a converged multi-screen ecosystem is not new, the reality is that previous attempts to implement have provided a sub-par user experience,” says Stephen Froehlich, senior analyst at IMS Research.

“However, 2012 will be the year that this all changes. Numerous vendors at this year’s CES, for instance, demonstrated products which showed real, highly complex, incredibly powerful and scalable solutions to the incredibly difficult problem of delivering a converged, multiscreen television experience.”

Key enablers driving this transition include:

• The increasing adoption of fixed broadband connectivity into homes, along with the proliferation of wired and wireless home networking
• The rapidly growing installed base of IP-enabled CE devices
• Broad understanding of how to secure content distribution in iOS and Android applications
• Open-standard encryption protocols such as DLNA Premium Video (DTCP-IP)
• New content distribution contracts that specifically allow for multiscreen distribution
• Several key hardware innovations such as adaptive transcoding and ultra-high-bandwidth modems

Anna Hunt, principal analyst at IMS Research adds, “The concept of convergence within the home is gaining momentum in terms of deployment of actual solutions and consumers’ usage of these solutions. For example, the multi-room DVR deployments enabled by the DLNA Premium Video protocol suite, demonstrate one of the first converged home media architectures where a primary server device distributes content around the home.”

“The next step in this evolution is to use wireless technologies to seamlessly share content with mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones,” Froehlich concludes. “As this installed base of connected CE devices grows, service providers are focusing on evolving their strategies to encompass the multiple devices and screens used by consumers in the consumption of advanced broadband services.”