Survey Sez 07/31/12

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) says tablet ownership rates among online U.S. consumers reached 29 percent as of June, up 9 percent from the first quarter. Some two-thirds of online consumers expect to purchase a tablet sometime in the future, with nearly half (45 percent) planning to buy one within the next two years…While Wi-Fi remains the predominant networking technology in most consumer’s homes, wired solutions are gaining traction, especially for multiroom DVRs, comments ABI Research, and MoCA has become the go-to wired technology for most cable and satellite operators in North America, (with trials in Western Europe); HomePlug continues to do well in Western Europe…New analysis from Frost & Sullivan says the global LTE test-equipment market generated $760.8 million in 2011 and is estimated to reach $2.8 billion by 2018. Multiple legacy wireless standards operating parallel with LTE are expected to create complex technical issues that need to be addressed, making interconnectivity with legacy networks a challenge. “As LTE is still a new technology with only a few SPs deploying it globally, end-users will prefer purchasing backward- and forward-compatible testing tools for future use and LTE trials,” analysts say. “In addition, the trend toward integrated test equipment, such as one-box testers, is expected to continue with the higher price-to-performance ratio.”