Pace has overtaken Cisco, the networking major, as the top Set-Top Box (STB) vendor in the second quarter of 2013, according to Infonetics Research.
Infonetics Research, in its 2nd quarter 2013 Set-Top Boxes and Pay TV Subscribers market share and forecast report, noted that Cisco revenue fell sharply quarter-over-quarter.
Arris, which acquired the Motorola Home division earlier this year, is the number three player in the global STB market.
Echostart is in the fourth position – based on revenue share in the second quarter of this year, said Infonetics Research in its report that tracks IP, cable, satellite, and digital terrestrial (DTT), STBs and over-the-top (OTT) media servers.
The global set-top box revenue (IP/cable/satellite/DTT STBs and OTT media servers) dipped 3 percent to $4.3 billion in Q2 2013 from Q1, and down 9 percent from the year-ago second quarter.
Jeff Heynen, principal analyst for broadband access and pay TV at Infonetics Research, said that there are real unit shipment declines occurring in North America and Western Europe that won’t be offset by growth in Asia Pacific and Latin America until 2014.
Cable STB revenue declined 14 percent sequentially while unit shipments were flat, reflecting an increasingly heavier mix of single-tuner standard-definition boxes for emerging markets including India.
The industry is seeing the market bifurcate along geographic lines. The industry has a post-STB market, which includes North America and Western Europe, where operators are having a difficult time adding new pay TV subscribers and are responding by transitioning to video gateways. Also, there’s the emerging STB market in China, India, and Latin America, where digitization projects are underway.
