Report predicts that PC audio processing will migrate from chips and boards to the host CPU.............
IDC Forecasts Rapid Changeover in PC Audio Technology to Cause Market
Metamorphosis
September 3, 1997
FRAMINGHAM, Mass., Sept. 2 /PRNewswire/ via Individual Inc. -- Regardless of which
constituency has the greatest influence on the outcome, audio subsystems will be
transformed almost entirely in the next two to three years, according to a recently
published International Data Corporation (IDC) study.
This transition will be on the early side if the large standard setters - Microsoft and Intel
- have their way, and at the later end of the time period if the audio card manufacturers'
preferred scenario plays out. However, one way or another, the audio add-in business
as it is known today will all but disappear soon after the turn of the century in the
United States and not long afterward internationally.
Audio solutions shipped over time will make a dramatic progression in type as first a
changeover from Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) boards to Peripheral Component
Interface (PCI) cards that use ISA hardware for backward compatibility occurs, then PCI
controllers that maintain ISA compatibility through software emulation roll out, and
finally host-based digital audio begins to take over. Like other trends in audio, this will
begin earlier in the United States, where 62 percent of all audio will be host-based by
2001. Worldwide, only 42 percent of all audio solutions will be host based by 2001,
according to IDC.
Winners in this marketplace will include Microsoft and Intel, both of which have
substantial control in this environment; current audio solution providers sufficiently
well capitalized, creative, and nimble enough to make the transition to digital audio; and
agile new companies introducing de novo solutions - primarily software - that take
advantage of the changeover. Losers will include those companies in the legacy audio
board business unable to change their business models fast enough to get out from
under their collapsing markets as first the add-in and then the OEM board businesses
fade. Audio chip vendors can expect a slightly longer market run - a year or two beyond
the board vendors - but they, too, will eventually succumb to the nearly complete
absorption of audio functionality into host processing.
"This dramatic changeover in technology will cause a market shakeout, " said Roger
Kay, senior research analyst in IDC's Personal Systems and Desktop Graphics and
Multimedia research programs. "Already, half the players covered last year have left the
marketplace. More will follow."
IDC's new report, The Rapidly Changing Market for Audio Subsystems (IDC #B13984),
analyzes the successive waves of technology that will ripple through the marketplace,
the forces at work that will affect changeover timing, and the major competitors'
positions and strategies. A forecast of market size and growth is included as well as an
assessment of outlook and possible vendor responses to the coming changes.
This report is available for purchase by contacting Cheryl Toffel at (800) 343-4952. For
additional information on IDC's Personal Systems or Desktop Graphics and Multimedia
research programs, please contact Dara Queen, group marketing manager, at (508)
935-4585.
About IDC
Headquartered in Framingham, Mass., International Data Corporation provides IT
market research and consulting to more than 3,900 high-technology customers around
the world. With a global network of 300 analysts in more than 40 countries, IDC is the
industry's most comprehensive resource on worldwide IT markets, products, vendors,
and geographies.
IDC/LINK, an IDC subsidiary, researches and analyzes the home computing market,
leading-edge technologies in telecommunications and new media, and the convergence
of computing and consumer electronics.
IDC's World Wide Web site ( idc.com) contains additional company
information and recent news releases and offers full-text searching of recent research.
IDC is owned by International Data Group (IDG), the world's leading IT media and
research company.
NOTE: All product and company names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of
their respective holders.
SOURCE International Data Corporation
/CONTACT: Roger Kay, 508-935-4617, rkay@idcresearch.com or Hillary DeMello,
508-935-4282, hdemello@idcresearch.com, both of IDC/
[Copyright 1997, PR Newswire] |
