This market report which provides readers with a detailed inventory of the internet-ready device market: TVs, set-top boxes, digital media boxes, computers, portable media players, etc. It also includes market figures up to 2015, along with a series of case studies that provide the foundation for a strategic analysis of the issues facing industry players, and innovative applications that will help consolidate the digital home.

The technical building blocks for the digital home are available, but several views on how it should be organised are vying for the upper hand, depending on the market players and their core business: proprietary silos, technical interoperability of the devices, content and in-the-cloud services. By providing access to content that is stored or distributed in the cloud, the connected TV, ISPs’ new-generation set-top boxes and now tablets are the new driving forces in the digital home’s development.

The device is king – the inexorable rise of connectable devices

Sales of digital home devices will increase between 2011 and 2015, with more than 2 billion units expected to be sold in 2015.
•    The emergence of digital home solutions has been spurred by game consoles on the one hand and, on the other, by devices dedicated to managing content and to providing access to the Web.
•    The integration of solutions still falls short on many fronts, especially in terms of the quality of the interfaces, continuity of service and payment systems.
•    In 2010, one out of every two devices sold was internet-ready, and there were 1.3 billion connectable devices in use by the end of the year.
•    Even before the connected television has become ubiquitous, TV accounts for more than 20% of connectable devices sold, in particular thanks to the popularity of game consoles. By 2015, most televisions will access the Web directly through built-in connectivity.
•    In 2015, internet-ready device sales will reach 1.6 billion units worldwide, accounting for 78% of all devices sold.
•    Although device sales are expected to increase by 2.2 times between 2011 and 2015, sales revenue will increase by a factor of only 1.7, to reach over 400 billion EUR in 2015.
•    The computer’s relative weight in the fleet of connectable devices deployed will decrease as mobile phones and televisions increase their share.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Executive Summary

2. Methodology

3. Developing views of the digital home
3.1. Proliferation of devices and connectivity
3.2. Digital home strategies dictated by
industry players’ positions
3.3. Conditions shaping the digital home’s
development

4. The digital home’s main building blocks
4.1. Communication protocols
4.2. Device interoperability
4.3. Storage solutions: local vs. cloud
4.3.1. Physical storage
4.3.2. Local storage on a hard drive
4.3.3. Online storage
• JoliCloud, a free cloud-centric OS
• The Wuala online storage system from LaCie
4.4. New interfaces
4.4.1. The industry standard (HbbTV)
4.4.2. Design: crucial to success
• Samsung’s touch-screen remote
• Free’s gyroscopic remote
4.4.3. Multiplatform content distribution
solutions
• NETIA, a multiplatform content distribution
solution

5. Connectable devices
5.1. Segmentation of connected devices
5.2. The different devices’ prominence
inside the digital home
5.3. Innovative devices: connected TV,
tablets, new generation set-top boxes
5.3.1. The connected TV in need of an
end-to-end solution
• Samsung: a proprietary platform
• Google TV: Android Market
5.3.2. Intermediate generation of devices while
awaiting the ubiquity of connected TV
• Toshiba Places
5.3.3. Tablets in the digital home
• App Centric
5.3.4. ISPs’ new generation STBs

6. Digital home usage
6.1. Creation of a consumption matrix
6.1.1. Device categories
6.1.2. Device features
6.1.3. Consumption matrix
6.2. Innovative uses
6.2.1. The smartphone: acquiring and
consuming content at home
6.2.2. The TV: simultaneous transfer for
viewing on other sets
6.2.3. Access to content stored at home when
on the move
6.2.4. Multi-device access to content stored in
the cloud
6.2.5. Multi-device access to gaming in the
cloud
• Cloud Gaming: OnLive
6.2.6. The tablet as a remote for the digital
home
6.2.7. Ordering and viewing video content on
the home’s portable devices
6.2.8. Ordering and playing games on the
home’s portable devices
6.2.9. Smartphone alert for programmes and
ability to switch over to a
catch-up TV service
• The TV memo service from Sky Italia
6.2.10. Remote recording through a connected
set-top-box or a smartphone
6.2.11. Using GPS as a mobile multimedia
system

7. The connectable device market: forecasts 2011-2015
7.1. Methodological components
7.2. The global connected CE device market:
overall results
7.2.1. Connectable device sales
7.2.2. Growth of sales, in units and revenue
7.2.3. The computer’s relative weight in the
internet-ready device pool, compared
to mobile handsets and TV
7.2.4. Should we expect de facto
internet-readiness for the TV?
7.2.5. The tablet; creator or destroyer of value?
7.2.6. Weight of set-top-boxes in the different
national markets
7.3. Results by market segment
• TV - Set-top-boxes- Digital media boxes
- Computers - Portable media devices