Acorn Times - A Bigger Slice
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Acorn Times - A Bigger Slice Printed from : http://www.acorn.com/acorn/news/newsletter/stories/page2.html Printed on : 10/03/98 - 16:42
Date : 10th March 1998OCR Text:
In 1996, the consumer electronics market was worth $25 billion.
The fastest-growing sector, Internet access products, has been
increasing at a compound annual growth rate of 113%.
Forecasters expect 80 million NCs and derivatives such as set-top
boxes (STBs) to be In use by the year 2000. A very large slice of that
market Is likely to be taken by Acorn technology, even though Acorn's
name may not appear on the products. "Although we have some
significant offerings for Enterprise users, our focus has always been
the provision of technologies for consumer electronics products," says
Steve France, Acorn's Vice President of Marketing.
"No one company can ad the entire market, so we relationships with techno
partners, from vast multinational corporation based in Japan to si
manufacturers, developm organisations and univer "We are looking at Internet televisions, and Internet telephones, which some analysts believe may be an even bigger market," says France.
In the US alone, there could be 2.2 million NetTVs and 10 million
NetPhones by the year 2000. "TV and NC technology is converging
fast: the current generation of STBs is essentially an NC with MPEG
video capability. The next generation of products will put the STB
functionality inside the TV itself." These are what he perceives as the
key markets. But it is important to be flexible. "For example, our work
on very low bit-rate video codecs with a UK university could result in
video over mobile phones." Being able to deliver everything from first
designs to finished product gives Acorn and its partners a unique
edge in bringing products to market quickly. To capitalise on Acorn's
success in designing and licensing technologies for the Asian market,
we have appointed agents in Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Winning the
licensing agreements is a long and detailed process involving much
travel for us and our prospective partners. "The result may be a
request for us to provide a design or a prototype, or to build a product
to the partner's specification. Then follows an agonising wait while
they gear up their own production - and at last the finished product
and the royalties," says France. Creator : Acorn Computers Format : PDF Only This exhibit has a reference ID of CH52894. Please quote this reference ID in any communication with the Centre for Computing History. |
 
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