As station managers and news directors contemplate how best to reach mobile viewers, ABI Research has released a new study forecasting that within five years there will be nearly 50 million 3G and mobile WiMAX devices, including broadband media players, in the hands of consumers worldwide.
The study, “Mobile Broadband-Enabled Consumer Electronics,” explores how the market for mobile broadband-enabled consumer electronics will play out from 2007 to 2012.
For the near term, connected portable devices will rely more on 3G cellular connections, according to ABI Research analyst Philip Solis. But the 3G market is fragmented, and that’s a challenge for the development of the market. The first products are beginning to appear, however. Two portable video players — Digital Cube's iStationNetforce and Cowon's Q5 — offer 3G connections through add-on HSDPA modules.
One of the first devices of this class, offering embedded HSDPA, is Samsung's VLUU i70 digital camera. Not just a 7.2-megapixel camera, the i70 also shoots video, reads e-books, receives T-DMB television, plays MP3s and video, and allows the user to send or download photos and videos.
For more information, visit www.abiresearch.com.
