Multimedia Devices

Global market for Loudspeakers is projected to reach US$4.5 billion in value terms and 18.1 million units in volume terms by the year 2017. Continued popularity of video and audio entertainment, increasing household penetration led by rising trend for at-home entertainment will stand out as strong market fundamentals capable of nailing down growth patterns across regional markets worldwide.

The overall semiconductor outlook for 2012 is slightly positive at best, but that doesn't mean there won't be giant leaps in technological innovation during the next year. Markets that were strong in 2011 will continue their dominance in 2012 with moderate growth. These markets include automotive, consumer electronics, and networking systems. Companies will continue to push for smaller and more powerful systems in order to attain market share in the high profit markets. Here are just a few glimpses of what new ideas may be in store for the next year and what it could mean for each respective industry.

This report takes an in-depth look at suppliers of thermal management technologies and the most important criteria of products and suppliers. In the report, research analysts assess and list the top 10 thermal management companies in the field, and those deserving closer scrutiny in the coming months and years.

In May, at the Computex 2011 show, Intel first laid out the plans for a whole new type of portable computer. The firm trademarked the term "Ultrabook" to include a brand new generation of laptop PCs, which incorporate flash-based SSDs, while boasting ultra-fast start up, high performance, and long battery life (Intel claims that Ultrabooks will have 5 hours of battery life). Intel also designed the computing platform to be as thin as possible while keeping the price low. The first batch of Ultrabooks retail around $1000 and offer competitive performance to the high-end Apple' MacBook Air. Most significantly, the new devices will be defined by their use of the "Sandy Bridge" based Core i5 and i7 processors inside instead of the low powered Atom processor that Intel provides to it's smartphone and netbook customers.

Global Automotive Entertainment Systems OEM and aftermarket is expected to reach US$26.7 billion and US$14.2 billion, respectively, by the year 2017. Miniaturization of speaker systems, integrated models of in-dash DVD players with SD slots and car audio systems with USB drive and Bluetooth technology will open up avenues for growth in the post recession period.

The global market for Electronic Laboratory Notebooks (ELNs) is forecast to reach $284 million by the year 2017. Key factors driving market growth include increasing drive towards enhancing R&D efficiencies, rising demand for transfer of knowledge among scientists, and growing emphasis on intellectual property protection. Additional factors, such as the advancement of the ELN technology, large untapped market potential, increasing adoption of ELNs in non-traditional end-use sectors, availability of new and advanced products in the market, are also expected to fuel market growth.

World e-readers market is forecast to reach 53.87 million units by the year 2017. The global economic recession, which put several industries under pressure and in a state of turmoil, has failed to rattle the market for e-readers making it an exceptional product.

The global market for DLR devices can be broken down into four regions. Asia held the greatest share of the 2010 market, worth $62.6 billion in 2010. This region will hold a projected $97.1 billion by 2015, growing at a CAGR of 9.2%. North America was $43.0 billion in 2010, and should reach $60.9 billion by 2015, yielding a CAGR of 7.2%. In 2010, Europe held $27.7 billion of the DLR device market and by 2015 should have $38.6 billion, for a CAGR of 6.9%. The rest of the world, whose 2010 value was $11.0 billion, should increase by 2015 to $29.2 billion at a CAGR of 21.5%.

With recent advances in television manufacturing this third round of 3D may just do the trick. In a recently published Video/Display Market Tracker, television sales are forecasted to increase heavily in the next five years. The research firm forecasts a 21 percent compound annual growth rate in television revenue over the next half decade. The largest region of consumption is Asia/Pacific, where total display semiconductor revenue is expected to increase to $17 billion dollars by the end of 2012. The total revenue of this region is larger than the other three regions combined, which means that this market will have a strong influence on its acceptability. Not only is most manufacturing taking place in this region, but domestic demand is climbing significantly.

The Topology Research Institute of Taiwan and the Gartner Group of the United States, both of which track the information-technology market, predict that the robust demand for tablet PCs will strike a blow at global shipments of PCs this year. Topology projects worldwide tablet shipments of 51 million units for this year, a huge jump from last year's 16.7 million systems. The company's forecast for laptop shipments this year is around 213.7 million, up 5-10% from last year.