Portable Music, Video Players Set to Double

Analyst firm iSuppli released new figures for the portable media player (PMP) industry yesterday, saying that it expects the market to double—in terms of units shipped—from 2005 to 2011.

Analyst firm iSuppli released new figures for the portable media player (PMP) industry yesterday, saying that it expects the market to double - in terms of units shipped - from 2005 to 2011.

This year alone, unit shipments are expected to reach 217 million, up 22 percent from 2006's 178 million, according to iSuppli. The research firm said that PMP/MP3 players now represent one of the fastest growing segments in the consumer electronics industry and that shipments are expected to rise to 269 million units, globally, by 2011.

Revenue is also expected to follow suit, increasing from $20.6 billion this year to $21.5 million in 2011, according to Chris Crotty, senior analyst for consumer electronics at iSuppli.

"A major driving factor behind this growth is the fact that PMP/MP3 players take advantage of the Internet more than other consumer electronics devices, giving users the ability to quickly and easily sample, acquire, and share media," he said in a statement Wednesday.

PMP shipments, in particular, are expected to grow faster than those of music-only MP3 players in the coming years due to increased consumer use of the Internet for video. That trend will continue as broadband connectivity and Internet usage rises during the next five years, iSuppli said.

By 2011, PMPs are expected to account for more than 66 percent of the combined PMP/MP3 unit shipments. In particular, Flash-based PMPs are expected to reach the 135 million unit mark by 2011, up from 47 million this year.

Crotty also attributed the rapid market expansion to the growing catalog of available content and component cost reductions that are now making players more affordable.

Copyright 2007 by Ziff Davis Media, Distributed by United Press International

Related stories:

Samsung Electronics unveils new 256GB solid state drive
Samsung Electronics announced today that it has developed the world’s fastest, 2.5-inch, 256 Gigabyte (GB) multi-level cell (MLC) based solid state drive (SSD) using a SATA II interface at the fifth annual Samsung Mobile Solution Forum held at the Westin Taipei Hotel. Samsung’s new 256GB SSD is also the thinnest drive with the largest capacity to be offered with a SATA II interface.
Shock at pump stems from high crude oil prices
Next time you visit the gas station and fill your tank with $3.50 or more a gallon gasoline, reflect on this. Nine years ago you could have bought that same gas for 98 cents a gallon. What is going on?
NASA Sets Sights on Lunar Dust Exploration Mission
NASA is preparing to send a small spacecraft to the moon in 2011 to assess the lunar atmosphere and the nature of dust lofted above the surface.
Intel Microchip Packs Two Billion Transistors
Intel has just announced the first microchip that contains more than two billion transistors - tiny switches that together perform the calculations in computers. The chip, known as Tukwila, marks a milestone in chip density technology.
Mercury Flyby Sets Stage for New Discoveries
"Discoveries are at hand!" That's what members of the MESSENGER science team are saying after their spacecraft flew past Mercury on Jan. 14th at a distance of only 124 miles. The historic flyby netted 500 megabytes of data (now safely downloaded to Earth) and more than 1200 photos covering nearly six million square miles of previously unseen terrain.
Cosmic Vision 2015-2025: and the candidate missions are...
The first steps of the next great phase of European space science have been taken! At its meeting held on 17-18 October 2007 in Paris, ESA’s Space Science Advisory Committee (SSAC) selected the new candidates for possible future scientific missions.
Hitachi Achieves Nanotechnology Milestone for Quadrupling Terabyte Hard Drive
Hitachi, Ltd. announced today they have developed the world’s smallest read-head technology for hard disk drives, which is expected to quadruple current storage capacity limits to four terabytes (TB) on a desktop hard drive and one TB on a notebook hard drive.
Samsung Announces Advanced Multi-standard, Multi-band Mobile TV Chipset
Samsung Electronics announced the industry's first 65 nanometer (nm) multi-standard channel decoder (S3C4F31) and multi-band radio frequency (RF) tuner (S5M8602) chipset which supports multi digital mobile TV standards including DVB-H/T, DAB-IP, ISDB-T, and terrestrial DMB for the multiple standards in the different countries around the world.

News discussion:

Electronic Devices news