Monday June 8, 2009 – Maya Jasmin
Adoption of the MPEG-4 AVC codec is advancing nicely with only a few years having passed since the first Advanced Video Codec (AVC) products debuted. While crowned as the heir to the ubiquitous MPEG-2 codec, it will be a while before MPEG-4 AVC is sitting pretty and alone on the video codec throne. For now the two codecs work nicely together even providing MPEG-2 device shipments with a boost as digital set-top boxes, TVs and other devices donning the latest technical advances are also supporting the MPEG-2 standard. And even though MPEG-4 AVC won’t cannibalize MPEG-2 anytime in the near future, the newer codec has also done much for introducing the MPEG standard into non-traditional devices, like mobile handsets, personal media players, and handheld video game systems.
DTC expects shipments of MPEG-4 AVC mobile handsets to sustain healthy double digit yearly growth throughout 2013 and probably beyond. Shipments are expected to reach 118 million in 2009 catapulting to over 700 million by 2013. Personal Media Players will experience robust shipment numbers throughout the forecast period as well, and even with slight declines in yearly growth in the outer years, DTC still forecasts shipments of 73 million in 2013. DTC also expects handheld video game systems to contribute heavily to MPEG-4 AVC product shipments in the future, but with limited insight into next generation systems as our current forecast does not include next generation handhelds. For more information about the adoption and impact of MPEG-4 AVC in video devices and downloads, please visit http://dtcreports.com/report_avc.aspx.
Source: DTC
