As households hop aboard the high-speed Internet bandwagon, the advent of high-speed broadband connections and changes in consumer requirements have led to greater connectivity, according to ABI Research (News - Alert).

 

The market research firm believes that although basic data-oriented devices currently account for more than half of the market, they will soon become obsolete as full-fledged multimedia boxes with high throughput take over the market.

 

By the end of 2013, the home networking consumer premises equipment (CPE) and aggregation devices will provide at least $1.8 billion in annual revenues.

 

ABI Research also states that to support various services and ultimately become the main interface between carriers and end-users, the role of the home router and residential gateway will grow over time. But it’s not easy to distribute media with guaranteed QoS on wireless and existing fixed media. Manufacturers need to make sure that their products offer sufficient future-proofing, reliability and user-friendliness, as well as a reasonable price tag (News - Alert). This will be necessary, if they want to keep abreast of growing consumer expectations.

 

Analyzing gateway activities around the world, ABI Research’s new study, “Residential Gateways” addresses major gateway solutions provided by service carriers, IC and CPE vendors.

 

Regional growth patterns are discussed in light of leading broadband technologies, subscriber penetration and current and future market dynamics. Where available, detailed market trend data and forecast information for key regions around the globe are provided.

 

ABI Research Industry Analyst, Serene Fong, stated, “Broadband households have a high propensity to adopt home networks and broadband subscribers will be the primary candidates for gateway products designed to distribute Internet bandwidth and multimedia applications.”

 

The only question that equipment vendors have is about the speed of the broadband market’s growth, and the adoption of sophisticated equipment.

 

Fong adds, “To date, modem and router shipments are still leading the charge, but vendors are also actively seeking multimedia solutions to set themselves apart from their competitors.”